Gonorrhea

Overview

What Is Gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea (pronounced: gah-nuh-REE-uh) is a sexually transmitted disease (STD).

What Are STDs?

STDs (also called sexually transmitted infections or STIs) are infections that spread through sex (vaginal, oral, or anal). Some STDs can spread through close contact with the genitals or body fluids.

How Do People Get Gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea spreads through sex (vaginal, oral, or anal) with someone who has the infection.

Signs & Symptoms

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea symptoms can include:

• discharge from the vagina, penis, or anus 
• in men, pain in testicles
• in women, vaginal bleeding between periods
• pain in the lower belly
• pain when peeing
• rectal pain, especially when having a bowel movement (pooping)

Many people with gonorrhea have no symptoms. They can spread the infection to others without knowing it.

Causes & Prevention

What Causes Gonorrhea?

A type of  called Neisseria gonorrhoeaecauses gonorrhea.

Can Gonorrhea Be Prevented?

The only way to prevent gonorrhea and other STDs is to not have sex (oral, vaginal, or anal). If you decide to have sex, using a latex condom every time, during every type of sex, can prevent most STDs.

If you are sexually active, get tested for STDs every year, or more often as recommended by your healthcare provider. This way, you can get treated right away if you get an STD.

Diagnosis

How Is Gonorrhea Diagnosed?

To find out if someone has gonorrhea, health care providers do tests on:

• urine (pee)
• fluid or discharge from the vagina, cervix (opening to the womb), urethra (where pee comes out), throat, or anus

Treatment & Care

How Is Gonorrhea Treated?

Healthcare providers treat gonorrhea with an antibiotic. It is given as a shot or a medicine by mouth in the doctor's office. It is important to get tested again three months after treatment to make sure the infection is cured (even if there are no symptoms).

All sexual partners from the past two months need treatment too, even if they don't have signs of gonorrhea.

If someone still has symptoms after treatment, they may need treatment with different antibiotics. Or they may have been infected with gonorrhea again.

You should not have sex again until:

• at least seven days after you and your sexual partner(s) take the antibiotics
• you and your sexual partner(s) do not have signs of gonorrhea

People can get gonorrhea again if:

• their partners aren't treated
• they get treated but then have sex with someone else who has gonorrhea

What Problems Can Happen?

If it's not treated, gonorrhea can lead to:

• in girls:pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can damage the reproductive system, making it hard or impossible for a woman to get pregnant later on
• in guys: swelling in the testicles and tubes at the back of the testicles, possibly preventing a man from fathering kids later on
• problems peeing due to scars in the urethra
• infection of the blood that can lead to joint problems and other problems

Talk to your doctor if you have questions about gonorrhea.