8 At-Home STD Tests for 2024
Gonorrhea: Signs And Symptoms
Gonorrhea is a very common sexually transmitted infection (STI) that you may hear referred to as "the clap" or "the drip." An infected person can pass it to a partner during vaginal, anal, and/or oral sex. It can also be spread via contaminated sex toys and close genital-to-genital contact, even if there's no penetration. You can also get it if the infection touches your eyes. If left untreated, it can cause serious complications, including:
Gonorrhea symptoms normally show up within 14 days after you get the infection. Some people don't experience any symptoms until after they've had the infection for months. Many people with gonorrhea — usually people with vaginas — never have symptoms at all.
Know the signs of this common STI so you'll have a better chance of recognizing and curing it quickly.
You get gonorrhea from a bacterium. This germ infects you when someone who has it passes it to you during sexual contact. The most common symptoms show up in the mucous membranes (the linings of certain openings in your body) involved in these types of intercourse. These include your genital tract, rectum, and throat.
Gonorrhea can also cause problems with other parts of your body, such as your joints, or even your eyes.
Often, gonorrhea has no symptoms. Symptoms typically don't start immediately, because the infection may not trigger your immune system for up to several weeks. Most people who contract gonorrhea will begin to have symptoms within 14 days.
It's possible for people with penises not to have any symptoms. But when they do have symptoms, they commonly include:
People with vaginas are more likely to not have symptoms of gonorrhea than people with penises. People with vaginas also tend to have milder symptoms. Its symptoms can be mistaken for those of a bladder infection. The symptoms include:
Pelvic pain can be a symptom of gonorrhea for women and those assigned female at birth. (Photo Credit: Moment/Getty Images)
Symptoms of gonorrhea can affect any infected area. It generally depends on what type of sex has spread the infection. You may experience symptoms in the following areas of your body:
Rectum
Gonorrhea in your rectum typically occurs following unprotected anal sex. However, if you have gonorrhea, you can spread the infection from your genitals to your rectum. For example, if you touch your rectum with infected toilet paper after wiping your vagina, you may spread the infection. Most of the time, you won't have any symptoms. Possible symptoms include:
Throat
Unprotected oral sex can lead to gonorrhea infection in your mouth and throat. Such infections usually don't cause symptoms. When symptoms do occur, they can include:
Eyes
If you touch your eyes after touching bodily fluids infected with gonorrhea, you could get gonococcal conjunctivitis, a contagious eye infection sometimes referred to as pink eye. Symptoms include:
Joints
If the bacteria that cause gonorrhea infect your joints, it's called septic arthritis. You'll notice the affected joints are painful, red, swollen, and warm to the touch. It'll hurt to move them.
Gonorrhea infections can lead to many complications if they go untreated. Some complications can be quite serious, even life-threatening. These complications and their symptoms include:
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
PID is a serious infection that develops in your uterus, fallopian tubes, and/or your ovaries. It can lead to infertility, chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy, and potentially life-threatening abscesses called tubo-ovarian abscesses (TOA). Symptoms of PID include:
Epididymitis
This is inflammation of the epididymis, a tube that leads from each testicle to another tube called the vas deferens. Both the epididymis and the vas deferens are parts of male reproductive organs. The epididymis stores sperm as it matures, while the vas deferens moves that sperm along shortly before you ejaculate. If left untreated, epididymitis can become chronic. It can also lead to infertility and cause the death of tissue in your testicles. The symptoms of epididymitis include:
Prostatitis
This is an often painful swelling of the prostate gland, a part of the male reproductive system that helps make semen. It can lead to sexual dysfunction, inflammation in other parts of your reproductive system near your prostate, an abscess in your prostate, and dangerous bacterial infections of your bloodstream, called bacteremia, which can cause sepsis. The symptoms include:
Urethritis
This is swelling of the urethra, the tube that carries pee from your bladder to the outside of your body. If left untreated, it can cause blockages of the urethra, boosting your risk of infections in your bladder and kidneys. Urethritis may not cause symptoms, but if it does, they can include:
Sepsis
This is a life-threatening medical emergency. It occurs when your immune system goes haywire in response to an infection. Rather than continuing to fight that infection, your immune system begins to attack your organs and other parts of your body. This causes damaging inflammation. Sepsis can also trigger blood clots that can block the flow of blood to essential organs, leading to damage or organ failure. Gonorrhea infections, as well as infections that can occur when gonorrhea goes untreated, can result in sepsis. It requires immediate treatment and can be quickly fatal. Sepsis has many potential symptoms because it can affect many parts of the body. These symptoms include:
If you notice any of the symptoms listed above, get tested for gonorrhea. You should also be tested if you're having sex with someone who has symptoms.
At your appointment, your doctor will ask about your sex life to get a better idea of your risk for this STI. They'll also ask what symptoms you are having and when they started.
To test you for the infection, they'll take a sample from or swab one or more of the following places:
Your doctor will send the sample to a lab, where it'll be tested for the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. Having it increases your chances of getting other STIs (such as chlamydia), so your doctor may recommend that the lab test your sample for those, too.
If you're a woman or AFAB, there are also home test kits that you can use to check for gonorrhea. These come with swabs you use on your vagina to collect a sample. You mail the sample to a lab. The lab will contact you with your results.
Gonorrhea is a common and serious sexually transmitted infection (STI). For many people, it does not cause symptoms. When symptoms do occur, some of those will depend on whether you have a penis or vagina. If you have symptoms or think that you may have gonorrhea, see a doctor right away. The infection usually can be treated with a single dose of antibiotics. Without treatment, it can cause potentially life-threatening complications, such as sepsis.
How serious is gonorrhea?
It can be very serious. If untreated, gonorrhea can lead to a long list of complications, including infertility, liver, heart, and brain damage, and sepsis.
Can gonorrhea be cured?
Most of the time, gonorrhea can be cured by a single injection of antibiotics. However, antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is becoming more common. That makes it even more important to avoid the infection in the first place. Practice safe sex and avoid sex with people who have gonorrhea or symptoms of gonorrhea.
What is the 7-day antibiotic for gonorrhea?
The antibiotic is called ceftriaxone. It's given once, by injection. You should avoid sex for at least 7 days after your injection to keep the infection from spreading. The CDC recommends that you get tested for gonorrhea 3 months after treatment to be sure you have not been reinfected. Your sexual partner or partners also should be treated.
How transmissible is gonorrhea from women to men?
There's about a 1 in 5, or 20%, chance of an infected woman passing gonorrhea to a male partner if they did not use a condom during sex.
Persistent Sore Throat Could Be A Sign Of STI; 5 Other Uncommon Symptoms You Should Know
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6 Best At-Home STD Tests Of 2024
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