Spread through a bacterial infection from sexual intercourse or other kinds of unprotected sexual contact, gonorrhea can infect the penis, vagina, cervix, urethra, anus or throat. It is sometimes referred to as “the clap” or “the drip.”
Four out of five women infected with Gonorrhea do not exhibit any symptoms of the disease. One out of 10 men do not show symptoms while infected with Gonorrhea. Gonorrhea symptoms usually begin within the first 14 days of infection if they show at all. Although symptoms of this sexually transmitted infection rarely show, it is important for sexually active teens to remember that getting tested routinely is the only way to find out for sure if they have contracted the gonorrhea infection. Even though there might not be any outward symptoms, the infection can still cause internal problems like pelvic inflammatory disease in women and epididymis in men. Both infections are painful and difficult to treat and can even cause sterility and infertility if left untreated. Gonorrhea is also passed from an infected pregnant woman to her baby during birth. If the baby becomes infected, they can suffer from blindness, joint infection or life threatening blood infection.
Gonorrhea symptoms:
- Abdominal pain and throwing up or nausea
- Bleeding or spotting in between period cycles
- Fever
- Pain experienced during intercourse
- Frequent and painful urination often with a burning sensation
- Swelling and tenderness of the vulva
- Yellow or greenish discharge in the vagina
- Pus-like discharge out of the head of the penis
- Itching around the anus
- Sore throat
One of the the best ways to prevent gonorrhea contraction and spreading is through proper gonorrhea treatment.
Gonorrhea Treatment and prevention:
- Antibiotics are typically prescribed to easily treat Gonorrhea. However, drug-resistant strains of Gonorrhea are becoming more and more frequent and are more difficult to treat. This is why routine screening to catch unnoticed symptoms is the best way to treat the drug-resistant trains even sooner to cure the infection faster.
- If you test positive for Gonorrhea it is a good idea to get tested for Chlamydia and other STDs as well since infections like Chlamydia often get transferred along with Gonorrhea, and often show many of the same symptoms.
- Make sure and take the entire prescription of antibiotics as prescribed even if the symptoms get better or go away. Taking the antibiotics correctly will help make sure the infection does not return. Not taking antibiotics correctly is how bacterial infections like gonorrhea become drug resistant because they get used to the antibiotic treatment and traditional medicines become less effective.
- It is a good idea to get tested again following treatment about three or four months later to make sure the infection has completely gone away.
- Sexually active teens with multiple sexual partners need to make sure each of your sexual partners are also treated before resuming any kind of sexual activity. Otherwise, you can contract the disease again from them even if they did not have it in the first place, they might have already contracted it from you before you received gonorrhea treatment.
- Although abstinence is the only way to 100 percent prevent contracting gonorrhea and other STDs, practicing safe sex with the use of a latex condom each and every time you have sex in a monogamous relationship is the next best way to make sure you do not get gonorrhea or spread the disease if you already have it.
