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What is gonorrhea?
Have you heard of "the clap," or "a dose," or "a drip"? These are all names for gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is a common STD caused by a kidney-shaped bacteria that grows in pairs.
How common is gonorrhea?
There are over 700,000 cases of gonorrhea in the U.S. every year.
Who gets gonorrhea?
Anyone having unprotected sex with someone infected with gonorrhea can get gonorrhea.
How is gonorrhea spread?
Gonorrhea is almost always spread through sex—oral, anal, and vaginal. Ejaculation is not needed for the disease to be passed on or caught. Women are much more likely to catch gonorrhea from men than men are from women. Gonorrhea can also be passed to the eye by a hand or other body part moistened with infected fluids. A pregnant woman with gonorrhea can pass the germ on to her baby's eyes during birth, possibly causing a serious eye infection.
What are the symptoms of gonorrhea?
You may not have any symptoms if you have gonorrhea. If you do have symptoms, they can take 1-30 days (average 3-5 days) to develop after catching it. You can pass the germ on to others whether or not you have symptoms.
Symptoms of gonorrhea include:
How is gonorrhea diagnosed?
Your health care provider can diagnose gonorrhea by taking a urine sample or by doing a pelvic examination and testing the cervix for gonorrhea. It is important to get a test in order to tell if you have gonorrhea or chlamydia. They have very similar symptoms, but each needs a different treatment.
Is there a cure for gonorrhea?
Yes! Gonorrhea can be cured with antibiotics prescribed by your health care provider. If you treat gonorrhea early, it is usually cured with a single dose of antibiotics (either injected or taken by mouth). The earlier gonorrhea is treated, the easier it is to cure. If the infection has spread, you will have to take medication for a longer time. You may need to be hospitalized if the infection is serious.
Is gonorrhea dangerous?
Gonorrhea can cause serious problems if it is not treated early. You could get chronic lower abdominal pain. Gonorrhea can spread from the vagina to the uterus and into the fallopian tubes and develop into pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), possibly causing infertility or ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy in the fallopian tubes). There is a very low risk of gonorrhea spreading into the bloodstream and causing fever, chills, blisters on the skin, or arthritis of the joints.
How can I prevent spreading gonorrhea?
If you think you have gonorrhea, you should stop having sex. As long as you have gonorrhea, you can pass it on to someone else. You need to wait until you have finished all treatment and your health care provider says you are cured. Make sure you tell all current and past sexual partners that you have gonorrhea, since you could have infected them. You may find this difficult to do, but it is very important to do so that those infected can get treated before more serious health problems occur. You need to make sure that your sexual partner gets tested and treated (if infected) at the same time as you, so that you don't re-infect each other. Also, make sure you use a latex (or polyurethane if you are allergic to latex) condom every time you have vaginal, anal, and oral sex.
How can I avoid getting gonorrhea?
The best way to keep yourself from getting gonorrhea is to not have sexual intercourse. But if you decide to have sexual intercourse, make sure you use a condom every time you have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
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Updated 8/13/2005
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