Gonorrhea 

Gonorrhea: A Common Disease

Gonorrhea is a very serious but common sexually transmitted disease that is caused by bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Over the last couple of decades this disease was decreasing in numbers but studies show that it’s on the rise again. It’s estimated that about 700,000 new cases occur each year even though only about half of these are reported.

Gonorrhea is most common in adolescents and young adults. It’s also more common in African Americans, residents of urban areas located in the southern states and drug users. This disease is transmitted from one person to another through sexual relations. If your sex partner has gonorrhea, then you run a risk of being infected as well. Men have a twenty percent chance of being infected by their female partner and women have a fifty percent chance of being infected by their male partner.

One of the reasons many people don’t know at first that they have this disease is because it’s possible to not have any symptoms right away. In fact, this happens about thirty to forty percent of the time. When symptoms do appear, they usually begin between two to ten days after coming in contact with the infection. Sometimes it can take up to three weeks before it appears in women.

Gonorrhea Symptoms

Also see our related aricle focusing on symptoms of gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea symptoms in men include:

• Prostate infection and inflammation
• Thick yellowish penile discharge
• Burning pain when urinating
• Inflammation and infection of the duct located in the tesrticles

Symptoms of gonorrhea in women include:

• Frequent urinating
• Itching and burning of the vagina along with a thick yellowish green discharge
• Bleeding between menstrual cycles
• Infection and irritation around the cervix
• Vaginal infection and irritation
• Pelvic inflammatory disease

If you are pregnant and have this STD then you can transmit it to the infant when they are being born. The mucous membranes in the eyes will be irritated and blindness can occur if not treated.

This type of STD will not go away on its own. You need to seek medical care. Antibiotics called fluoroquinolones have always been used in the past to treat this condition but it has become resistance to these medicines. It is for this reason that the CDC has introduced a new class of antibiotics called cephalosporins to be used.

Normally, a single dose pill called Cipro or single dose injection called Rocephin will be used to treat gonorrhea. 

Always take all of the medication you are prescribed to ensure the infection is cleared. It’s vital that if you are diagnosed with this STD that you contact your sex partner and let them know so they can be tested and treated to prevent the spread of this disease.

The only way to ensure that you don’t come in contact with gonorrhea is to not have sex but limiting your sexual activity to one partner that you can trust will greatly lower your risk. It’s recommended that you use latex condoms and avoid high risk partners.