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Gonorrhea: Signs And Symptoms - WebMD
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.
Gonorrhea: Symptoms, Treatment, Causes, And More - Healthline
Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea. It's usually cured with antibiotics.
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.
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.
You can contract or transmit gonorrhea by having oral, anal, or vaginal sex.
Using a condom or other barrier method when engaging in sexual activity can go a long way toward lowering your chances of transmitting or contracting STIs like gonorrhea.
If you've developed gonorrhea before, you have a higher chance of contracting it again. Untreated gonorrhea can also increase your risk of contracting other STIs.
Gonorrhea can also be transmitted from the person giving birth to the baby during delivery.
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 penis
You 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.
Other possible symptoms include:
If you have a vagina
Many 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 symptoms
Gonorrhea 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.
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.
Untreated STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia may move into the reproductive tract and affect the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.
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.
You can't treat gonorrhea with over-the-counter or home remedies.
The 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 contact 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.
Researchers are working to develop a vaccine to prevent gonorrhea transmission. To date, though, no vaccine can prevent the infection.
The most effective way to prevent gonorrhea and other STIs is through abstinence. Otherwise, using a condom or other barrier method every time you have oral, anal, or vaginal sex can also help lower your risk.
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.
Contacting any previous partnersYou'll want to let your current sexual partner(s) know they should get tested for gonorrhea right away.
If a healthcare professional diagnoses gonorrhea, they may also ask for the names and contact information of any previous sexual partners.
The law requires healthcare professionals to report the diagnosis, usually to the county public health department. Public health officials will then contact your partner(s) anonymously and explain that they'll need to get tested for gonorrhea.
The health department takes this step because gonorrhea often doesn't involve symptoms. People who don't know they have the infection may not get tested or treated. As a result, they might transmit it without realizing — or go on to develop serious, sometimes permanent, reproductive health concerns.
How long is gonorrhea contagious?
Gonorrhea is contagious until it's successfully treated with antibiotics. It's contagious for up to seven days after completing treatment.
How long does gonorrhea last?
Gonorrhea typically resolves within 1 week of treatment.
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.
What's the difference between chlamydia and gonorrhea?
Chlamydia and gonorrhea are sexually transmitted infections caused by different bacteria. Each requires 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.
Tooth Infection Spreading To The Body: Signs And Symptoms
Without proper treatment, tooth infections can spread to other areas of the body, leading to serious and potentially life threatening complications.
A tooth infection, or a tooth abscess, is a collection of pus and bacteria that forms inside the tooth or gum. To reduce the risk of complications, a person should seek treatment for a tooth infection as early as possible.
It is rare for a tooth infection to spread to other parts of the body. However, if this does happen, the consequences can be severe.
The following symptoms could indicate that a tooth infection has spread to other body parts. A person who has a suspected tooth infection and develops any of these symptoms should seek immediate medical attention:
The mouth is full of bacteria from foods, saliva, and plaque. Sometimes, these bacteria can enter a tooth or the area below the gumline, resulting in a tooth infection or an abscess.
An abscess is a pocket of pus and bacteria that forms within the body's tissues.
In most cases, tooth infections are easily treatable. However, a person who does not receive prompt treatment is at risk of developing the following complications:
Without treatment, a tooth infection can spread to the face and neck, and severe infections may even reach more distant parts of the body.
In some cases, such infections may become systemic, affecting multiple tissues and systems throughout the body.
A person should contact a dentist at the first sign of a tooth infection. Early treatment stops the infection from spreading further.
If a tooth infection has spread, it is a medical emergency. These infections can quickly become widespread and severe. In some cases, systemic infections can even be life threatening.
As soon as possible, a person should contact a dentist for an emergency appointment. If no dentist is available, a person should visit the emergency department of their nearest hospital.
The type of treatment a person receives for a tooth infection depends on several factors, including:
Some possible treatments for a tooth infection include the following.
Root canal treatment
The procedure involves drilling into the tooth to remove the tooth's pulp, bacteria, and any accumulated pus inside the root.
The dentist then fills the space with a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. Once the tooth has healed, a dentist restores it with a crown or a permanent filling to prevent further infections.
Apicoectomy
Sometimes, RCT is not enough to treat a tooth infection. In such cases, a dentist may recommend an apicoectomy or a root-end resection.
This procedure involves opening up the gums, removing the end of the tooth root, and removing any infected tissue.
Antibiotics
A dentist may prescribe antibiotics to reduce the infection and stop it from spreading before administering a more permanent treatment.
If the infection has already spread, a person may need a longer course of antibiotic treatment, a switch to a different type of medication, or hospital admission to receive more potent antibiotics.
Drainage
In some instances, it may be necessary to drain pus directly from the site of the infection. For example, drainage may be necessary to remove pus from a dental abscess that has spread to the cheek.
To do this, a doctor or dentist numbs the area, creates a small incision, and drains pus and fluid from the gums.
Treatment of sepsis
Sepsis is a serious medical condition that occurs when the immune system severely overreacts to an infection in the blood. Untreated sepsis can lead to septic shock. With septic shock, a person's blood pressure becomes dangerously low, which can lead to organ failure and even death.
People with sepsis need treatment in an intensive care unit. Such treatment typically involves intravenous antibiotics and fluids.
Other treatments, such as dialysis or surgery, may be necessary to support the body's organs and limit the damage resulting from the infection.
How can a person know if their tooth infection has spread?
Signs a tooth infection has spread include symptoms such as a painful tongue and mouth, swelling of the face, cheeks, or neck, and difficulty swallowing.
Can a tooth infection affect the whole body?
Yes, a tooth infection can spread and affect the whole body. It can spread to the bone, blood vessels, skin, and fat if not treated promptly.
What are the signs of sepsis from a tooth infection?
Signs of sepsis include fever, chills, shivering, a rapid pulse, and difficulty breathing. Sepsis is life threatening and requires immediate intervention.
Most tooth infections are easily treatable. However, a tooth infection can spread to other body parts if a person does not receive prompt treatment. Once the infection has spread, it can quickly lead to severe and potentially life threatening complications.
People who suspect their tooth infection has spread should seek immediate medical treatment.
Maintaining good oral hygiene is the most effective way to prevent tooth infections. People can do this by limiting their sugar intake, brushing their teeth twice daily, and visiting the dentist regularly.
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