STDs: Every Type, Signs, Testing, and Prevention
Everything You Need To Know About Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea. It could lead to long-term health problems and infertility, but antibiotics can cure it and reduce the chance of complications.
This common STI tends to target warm, moist areas of the body, including the:
Gonorrhea can affect people of any age, anatomy, or gender, but it's particularly common among teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24.
You may not always notice any symptoms if you have gonorrhea. But even if you're an asymptomatic carrier — which means you have no symptoms — you can still transmit gonorrhea.
You might even be more likely to transmit it to your sexual partner(s) when you don't have any symptoms, since you aren't aware you have the infection.
You're more likely to notice signs and symptoms of gonorrhea in the morning, according to Planned Parenthood.
If you have a penisYou may develop noticeable symptoms of gonorrhea within 2 to 30 days after exposure. That said, it may take several weeks for symptoms to appear, and you might not experience any symptoms at all.
Burning or pain during urination may be the first symptom you notice.
Other possible symptoms include:
If you have a vaginaMany people with a vagina don't develop any symptoms of gonorrhea. Symptoms you do experience can show up anywhere from a day or so to several weeks after you're exposed.
These symptoms are often fairly mild. What's more, they can seem very similar to symptoms of vaginal yeast or other bacterial infections, which can make them even more difficult to recognize.
Possible symptoms include:
Other gonorrhea symptomsGonorrhea can also affect your mouth and throat.
Oral gonorrhea is typically asymptomatic. When symptoms do occur, they can include:
Gonorrhea can also cause a fever.
Rarely, gonorrhea may spread to your eyes. This typically happens if you touch your genitals, or the site of the infection, and then touch your eye before thoroughly washing your hands.
Symptoms of gonococcal conjunctivitis, or gonorrhea of the eye, can include:
A healthcare professional can diagnose gonorrhea in a few different ways:
You'll generally receive results within a few days, though this can depend on your clinic or testing location. Some clinics may provide test results within a few hours.
If you believe you could have gonorrhea, it's important to avoid any sexual activity until you receive a negative test result.
You may also consider purchasing an at-home gonorrhea test.
Untreated STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia may move into the reproductive tract and affect the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.
This can lead to a condition known as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause severe, chronic pain and damage to the reproductive organs.
Blocking or scarring of the fallopian tubes, another possible complication, can:
Gonorrhea may also pass to a newborn infant during delivery.
If you have a penis, untreated gonorrhea may lead to:
An untreated infection can also spread to your bloodstream, where it can cause rare but serious complications such as arthritis and heart valve damage.
Modern antibiotics can cure gonorrhea, in most cases.
You can't treat gonorrhea with over-the-counter or home remedies. If you think you could have gonorrhea or a sexual partner receives a positive test result, you'll need to get a diagnosis and treatment from a healthcare professional.
Not sure where to get tested and treated?
Most states offer free or lower cost diagnosis and treatment at state-sponsored health clinics.
If you need help finding a primary care doctor, then check out our FindCare tool here.
AntibioticsThe recommended treatment for gonorrhea is a one-time intramuscular injection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone. Typically, you'll get this shot in the buttocks.
A healthcare professional may also prescribe an oral medication, such as a twice-daily dose of doxycycline for 7 days, if chlamydia is suspected.
The CDC previously recommended ceftriaxone plus azithromycin, but the guidelines were changed because the bacteria causing gonorrhea are becoming increasingly resistant to azithromycin.
After taking these antibiotics, you should begin to feel relief from any symptoms within days — but you'll need to wait a full week after finishing your medications before participating in any sexual activity.
If your symptoms persist for more than a few days after treatment, you'll need to get in touch with a clinic or healthcare center for retesting.
For oral gonorrhea, you'll need to follow up with a healthcare professional 1 to 2 weeks later to make sure the infection has cleared.
Can gonorrhea be cured?Antibiotics can cure gonorrhea.
Still, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea poses some challenges for successful treatment.
It's important to take all of your medication to completely treat the infection, even if your symptoms go away before you finish your prescription.
If you continue to have symptoms after taking your antibiotics as prescribed, contact a healthcare professional as soon as possible so they can try a different treatment.
Researchers are working to develop a vaccine to prevent gonorrhea transmission. To date, though, no vaccine can prevent the infection.
The safest way to prevent gonorrhea and other STIs is through abstinence. And of course, using a condom or other barrier method every time you have oral, anal, or vaginal sex can also help lower your risk of contracting many STIs.
Another important step toward preventing STI transmission? Always have an open conversation with new partners before beginning a sexual relationship.
It's also a good idea to check in with your current partner(s) about STI status and testing, and make sure to get tested regularly yourself.
If a partner has symptoms of gonorrhea or any other STI, encourage them to get tested and abstain from sexual activity until they receive a negative result.
If you think you may have contracted gonorrhea, you'll want to avoid sexual activity and make an appointment to get tested at a doctor's office or another health clinic.
At your appointment, you'll answer questions about your:
For some people, talking about sexual health can feel slightly uncomfortable.
It's important to remember that healthcare professionals are there to diagnose and treat any health conditions you develop, and they should always do so with compassion and respect.
What is one of the first signs of gonorrhea?Burning or pain during urination may be the first symptom you notice.
What are the most common symptoms of gonorrhea?The most common symptom of gonorrhea is having no symptoms at all. When symptoms do occur, they might be mistaken for yeast or other bacterial infections.
Common symptoms include changes in discharge or odor, painful urination or bowel movements, and itching.
Will gonorrhea ever go away?Gonorrhea won't go away on its own. Antibiotics are used to treat gonorrhea and, in most cases, successfully clear the infection.
How long does gonorrhea last for?Gonorrhea typically resolves within 1 week of treatment.
What's the difference between chlamydia and gonorrhea?Chlamydia and gonorrhea are sexually transmitted infections caused by different strains of bacteria. They each require specific antibiotics to treat them.
If you think you could have contracted gonorrhea, you'll want to get tested right away. Keep in mind this infection is very common — and nothing to feel ashamed or embarrassed of.
You can take steps to avoid transmitting or contracting gonorrhea by using barrier methods for all sexual activity, getting tested for STIs regularly, and talking with your partner(s) about STIs before you start a sexual relationship.
Crystal Raypole writes for Healthline and Psych Central. Her fields of interest include Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health, along with books, books, and more books. In particular, she's committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues. She lives in Washington with her son and a lovably recalcitrant cat.
First Rapid Tests For Chlamydia, Gonorrhea Exhibit 100% Sensitivity
More than half of the estimated 374 million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in 2020 were either chlamydia or gonorrhea, which are often asymptomatic and co-occurring, according to the World Health Organization. Despite the prevalence, neither disease currently has a clinically available rapid test, but that could change thanks to a Penn State-led research team.
The researchers recently reported the first rapid tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia, built on a platform that could be adjusted to detect a variety of infections. Led by Dipanjan Pan, the team published their results this week in Advanced Science. Pan is the Penn State Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor in Nanomedicine and a professor of nuclear engineering and of materials science and engineering and of biomedical engineering.
"This work is trying to address a very important public health issue," said Pan, who is also the director of graduate studies in the Ken and Mary Alice Department of Nuclear Engineering department, leads the Laboratory for Materials in Medicine at Penn State—which is located in the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences—and is affiliated with the Huck's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
"Infections caused by sexually transmitted diseases pose a substantial economic and health care burden worldwide. Preemptive screening and testing are key to controlling this epidemic, so the development of accurate point-of-care test for rapid and simple detection of these STIs is crucial. It will enable timely treatment, prevent further spread, raise public awareness about risks, reduce health care costs and advance health care in resource-limited areas."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends women under the age of 25 and older women with risk factors test for chlamydia and gonorrhea annually, and that all sexually active people should discuss testing with their health care provider. If either disease goes undetected—and untreated—it may lead to irreversible reproductive damage. Gonorrhea, which has progressively developed antibiotic resistance, can also eventually spread to blood and joints and possibly cause death.
Tests meant to deliver results at the point of care have been developed, but Pan said they often underperform and are not suitable for population screening in a physician's office during routine family medicine visits and yearly checkups. Currently, molecular tests capable of detecting genetic material called nucleic acids from the bacteria are the standard of care, but they can be expensive and take several days to process, according to Pan.
"In spite of their excellent sensitivity and selectivity, these diagnostic approaches are expensive, time-consuming and cannot be used in a physician's office or emergency department, making it difficult for patients and the physicians to get results immediately," Pan said.
"The development of a point-of-care diagnostic method based on nucleic acid detection with high sensitivity, specificity and usability is urgently needed. Moreover, since co-infections occur frequently—up to 50% of the time—and have similar symptoms, simultaneous identification and detection of both pathogens is more efficient and cost-effective. To combat the current epidemic of these STIs, it is vital to develop a rapid point-of-care diagnostic assay that can detect chlamydia and gonorrhea simultaneously."
In Pan's lab, co-authors Ketan Dighe, graduate research assistant in biomedical engineering, and Parikishit Moitra, assistant research professor of nuclear engineering, spearheaded the effort with other team members to develop a lateral flow biosensor—the same kind of paper-based biosensor used in at-home rapids tests for COVID-19—capable of detecting nucleic acids present in chlamydia or gonorrhea from cervical and vaginal swab samples in two minutes.
As with a COVID test, the sample does not require pre-processing before it is placed in a liquid that allows the contents to flow laterally from a reservoir over a sensing strip. In this case, the strip contains single-stranded oligonucleotides (ssDNAs) or fragments of nucleic acids that the researchers designed with high specificity and affinity for various genetic targets conserved among different strains of chlamydia and gonorrhea that are also less prone to antibiotic resistance, Pan said. When the ssDNA probes bind to target nucleic acid fragments in the sample flow across the strip, the strip changes colors to signify a positive test result.
The researchers also validated their work with an absorbance-based assay, or a liquid that changes color when the genetic material of interest is added to it. They accomplished this by coupling each ssDNA probe with a gold nanoparticle, which are particles with unique optical properties. When a probe binds with the target fragment, the coupled nanoparticle changes its plasmonic resonance—it changes color. The gold nanoparticle also grows in diameter and aggregates with other probe/nanoparticle sensor complexes, which can strengthen the signal and deepen the color change.
The Penn State team collaborated with Carla Rafferty, a family medicine physician with Carle Health in Illinois, and Tor Jensen, director of the Biomedical Research Laboratory for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Cancer Center and affiliate of the Carle Foundation Hospital. When tested with 60 anonymized clinical samples collected at Rafferty's clinic, the tests accurately detected chlamydia and gonorrhea 100% of the time, meaning they did not produce any false negatives.
The tests did have slightly lower specificity, with a rate of more than 97%, Pan said, meaning that there were about three false positive results produced. According to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, these rates match or exceed sensitivity and specificity for current standard-of-care molecular tests: polymerase chain reaction or nucleic acid amplification tests.
"A critical function of these ssDNAs is to identify pathogens specifically and sensitively," Pan said. "Even if genetic concentrations are low, accurate identification is possible, minimizing the occurrence of false positives."
According to Pan, the test also can be customized by adjusting the synthetic DNA sequences used for the ssDNAs to detect different pathogens.
"Our approach is highly universal and with small changes, the platform can be used for detection of many other infectious diseases including other sexually transmitted diseases," Pan said. "We are currently exploring other areas in our lab."
More information: Ketan Dighe et al, Highly‐Specific Single‐Stranded Oligonucleotides and Functional Nanoprobes for Clinical Determination of Chlamydia Trachomatis and Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Infections, Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202304009
Citation: First rapid tests for chlamydia, gonorrhea exhibit 100% sensitivity (2023, October 27) retrieved 30 October 2023 from https://medicalxpress.Com/news/2023-10-rapid-chlamydia-gonorrhea-sensitivity.Html
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Signs And Symptoms Of Tardive Dyskinesia
Tardive dyskinesia is a movement disorder that affects the nervous system, causing symptoms like abnormal and involuntary movements in the face, limbs, and throughout the whole body. The involuntary movements include jerking hand movements, neck twisting, gait changes, and eye blinking, among many others.
Tardive dyskinesia is caused by antipsychotic medications used to treat mental health conditions like schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Antipsychotic medications work by blocking receptors that receive dopamine, a chemical signal in the brain that controls emotion, behavior, and movement. Tardive dyskinesia affects approximately 5-7% of people who use antipsychotic medications.
Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia typically begin gradually and worsen over time. It is possible to experience symptoms just a few months after the start of antipsychotic medication treatment. These involuntary movements can affect day-to-day activities, which can significantly impact your quality of life.
Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia can be reversed if they are diagnosed early and antipsychotic medication treatment is stopped or adjusted. In some cases, symptoms can continue and may not be reversed even if you have stopped taking the medication. Luckily, there are treatment options to help treat tardive dyskinesia symptoms, which can improve your quality of life and allow for continued use of antipsychotic medication.
The involuntary movement symptoms caused by tardive dyskinesia can be divided up into three major categories: involuntary facial movements, involuntary limb and body movements, and other rare muscle and motor movements. These symptoms can affect any person who is using antipsychotic medications for a long period of time. Symptoms are worsened with prolonged medication use and usually affect older adults. These types of involuntary movements can happen independently of each other or all at the same time. Involuntary Facial Movements Involuntary facial movements involve all aspects of the face, including, mouth, eyes, cheeks, and tongue. Approximately 75% of people with tardive dyskinesia experience involuntary facial movements. Some examples of involuntary facial movement symptoms include: Facial grimacing involving lower facial muscles Protruding and twisting tongue movements Puckering and/or smacking lips repeatedly Moving the corners of your mouth back and forth Bulging cheeks Repetitive chewing movements Jaw swinging Eye blinking and grimacing Blepharospasms (eye twitching) These facial symptoms are also known as oro-bucco-lingual symptoms. Because these involuntary movements affect the mouth, sometimes people with tardive dyskinesia can experience difficulty speaking, eating, and swallowing. If they become serious, these facial movements can also lead to mouth pain and jaw issues. Involuntary Limb and Torso Movements Involuntary limb and torso movement symptoms are more commonly seen in younger people with tardive dyskinesia. These symptoms affect the whole body and can result in issues with posture, gait (the way you walk), and overall mobility. Some examples of involuntary limb and body movements caused by tardive dyskinesia include: Jerking hand and leg movements Spreading fingers and "piano-playing"-like finger movements Foot tapping Shoulder shrugging or a stiff neck Rocking and swaying movements Sudden hip rotations and thrusting Rigid foot and leg postures Involuntary movement symptoms that affect the legs can result in instability while walking, which increases your risk of falling. These involuntary limb and body movements can also cause non-life-threatening irregular breathing. Other Rare Involuntary Muscle and Motor Movements These symptoms are rare and varied and usually involve muscle contractions and/or repeated movements. Some examples include dystonia and akathisia. Dystonia is a sustained and uncontrollable muscle contraction. These contractions often result in twisting, repetitive motions, and having limbs become stuck in abnormal positions. Akathisia is known as general limb restlessness. Examples of akathisia include repeated leg crossing, constantly shifting weight from one foot to another, and stepping in place. These symptoms usually affect people with tardive dyskinesia younger than 40 years old. They usually coexist with one another and can worsen limb, body, and facial symptoms. Studies suggest that children are at a lower risk of developing tardive dyskinesia than adults. The few studies that have looked at tardive dyskinesia reveal that symptoms are usually mild and are mostly confined to choreiform neck movements (also called chorea)—jerking and writhing movements in the neck. There is no difference in the type of tardive dyskinesia symptoms that affect men/women. However, there are some studies that suggest that women are at a higher risk of developing tardive dyskinesia than men. According to a 2017 review, postmenopausal women might be at a higher risk of developing tardive dyskinesia. This may be due to some yet-to-be-understood interactions between dopamine and estrogen, the primary reproductive hormone in people assigned female at birth. While women might be more susceptible to developing tardive dyskinesia symptoms, men seem to develop symptoms earlier. A 2023 review states that, on average, men present symptoms at a lower age (34 years) than women (44 years). More studies need to be performed to fully understand sex-based differences in tardive dyskinesia symptoms. Tardive dyskinesia symptoms can start happening as early as 6 weeks after beginning antipsychotic medications. Therefore, you should contact your medical provider immediately if you start presenting with some of the most common symptoms of tardive dyskinesia soon after taking antipsychotic medications. These symptoms include: Facial grimacing involving lower facial muscles Finger piano playing-like movements Rocking or thrusting of the hips Jaw swinging Repetitive chewing Rapid eye blinking Tongue thrusting Restlessness Tardive dyskinesia is a condition caused by antipsychotic medications which results in abnormal and uncontrollable movements in the face, torso, and limbs. Common symptoms include facial grimacing, abnormal finger movements, jaw swinging, rapid eye blinking, among many others. Symptoms can start our gradually and worsen over time. Symptoms can start as early as 6 weeks after taking antipsychotic medications for the first time and symptoms are typically worse for those who have used antipsychotic medications for long periods of time. While symptoms in men and women are the same, women seem to be at a higher risk of developing symptoms, while men on average experience symptoms earlier while women. If you or a loved one is experiencing involuntary movements soon after taking antipsychotic medications, contact your healthcare provider for an evaluation and a potential change in medication regimen.
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