United States: Since you began having sex, how often have you discussed or thought about gonorrhea? Your response is probably going to be “rarely.”
Sexually transmitted illnesses are still a taboo subject in our society. Furthermore, gonorrhea advocates aren’t precisely concentrating their efforts on the disease because, unlike with viral STIs like HIV and herpes, for example, there aren’t as many gonorrhea-positive influencers.
What Distinguishes an STD from an STI?
After all that, you might be shocked by this statistic: In the most current STI report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 616,392 cases of gonorrhea were reported in the United States in 2019, an all-time high for the sixth consecutive year. That is quite a bit, according to the reports.
How can you find out if you’re included in that statistic?
Medical experts below address all of your urgent issues concerning gonorrhea, including what gonorrhea is, how to take a test for it, what to do if you test positive, and much more.
What Exactly Is Gonorrhea?
Gonorrhea, also referred to as “the clap,” is a sexually transmitted ailment brought on by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria. Any mucosal membrane, or the moist inner lining of some organs and bodily cavities (mouth, vagina, etc.), can become infected with this bacteria.
Gonorrhea typically infects the urethra, rectum, throat, cervix, and fallopian tubes, according to Dr. Amy Pearlman, a urologist and health specialist, and expert with Promescent, a sexual health and wellness brand. (However, it’s important to remember that the infection can also spread to your eye.)
So, how does gonorrhea come about?
According to Dr. Pearlman, the virus can infect individuals of any gender or sexual orientation through anal, oral, or vaginal sex with an infected partner.
Symptoms of Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is not like Christmas carolers, as is true with most other STIs; it doesn’t usually show up with telltale signs or a ringing at the doorbell.
According to the CDC, most people are actually asymptomatic, meaning there is no discernible change after transmission.
When it comes to genital gonorrhea, “people with vaginas are even more likely to have no symptoms than people with penises,” says clinical development manager Emily Rymland, D.N.P., F.N.P.-C. of Nurx, an online healthcare platform, as per reports.
The National Health Service (NHS) of England in the United Kingdom states that with gonorrhea, half of the women and one-tenth of the men have no symptoms.
According to Dr. Pearlman, symptoms of gonorrhea often manifest two weeks after transmission and involve one or more of the following:
- Pain during urination or defecation
- Greater frequency or urgency to urinate
- Discharge or pus from the penis or vagina
- Swelling, itchiness, or pain at the injection site
- Persistent sore throat
- Bleeding between periods
Of course, the location of the infection affects the symptoms of gonorrhea. For instance, a gonorrhea infection in the throat can result in fever, swollen lymph nodes, or a painful throat.
In contrast, an eye infection can cause changes in vision, increased ocular discharge, and sensitivity to light.
You Need to Know Your Current Gonorrhea Status
“Taking care of your overall health requires knowing your current STI status,” says Dr. Pearlman. According to Rymland, all STIs are curable or controllable if discovered and treated.
Still, they can become hazardous or even fatal if they go untreated. This is accurate for gonorrhea regardless of the presence of symptoms.
“A big risk of genital gonorrhea is that, left untreated, it can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease in people with uteruses, which can lead to infertility and/or long-term pelvic pain,” according to Dr. Pearlman.
If left untreated, gonorrhea can cause excruciating symptoms in the tubes that connect the testicles in individuals. “Untreated gonorrhea can also spread to the blood or joints, and this can be life-threatening,” notes Rymland in more severe cases.
Reportedly, she also mentions that if a pregnant individual has gonorrhea and is not tested and treated, they could transmit it to their unborn child during delivery, potentially endangering the child’s health.
How to Accurately Conduct a Gonorrhea Test
The good news is that it’s simple to get tested for gonorrhea. It can be completed by swabbing the (possibly) contaminated region. Urine testing is another method for diagnosing genital gonorrhea.
Where can you get a gonorrhea test conducted? Excellent question.
If you have a primary care physician, they can do a test for you. If not, Planned Parenthood, your local health department, a mobile health clinic, or the health center at your college or university will provide low-cost STI testing.
You may also consider using a direct-to-consumer, at-home STI testing kit. These kits enable you to test for some or all STIs from the comfort of your home, which is an excellent option if you lack transportation to a testing clinic, have childcare duties, or prefer to conduct your own tests.
It’s crucial to test every potential site of infection, whether you choose to do it in person or at home. Gonorrhea and chlamydia remain localized, in contrast to some STIs (such as HIV and syphilis, for example), which are full-body infections, says Rymland.
This means “if you get a urine or vaginal test for gonorrhea, it won’t pick up an infection in your throat or anus,” she explains.
“You need to test any area that could have been infected. Suppose you had oral sex with someone whose STI status you were unaware of or who tested positive for gonorrhea. In that case, you should get tested for oral gonorrhea,” She added.
“You can keep infecting your partner(s), who will then re-infect you,” she says if you don’t examine every spot that might be contaminated.
With the Right Care, Gonorrhea Is Treatable
A positive gonorrhea test result is obviously unwelcome news, but in all honesty, it’s virtually unimportant. Antibiotics will eradicate the illness immediately, assuming you discovered it before it had a chance to spread.
According to Pearlman, the standard course of treatment is a single intramuscular injection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone. Alternatively, the World Health Organization recommends a single oral dose of azithromycin and a single injection of ceftriaxone.
Most doctors advise being retested following treatment. Retesting is called a “test of cure,” and its goal is to confirm that the treatment was successful and that you are no longer infected with gonorrhea.
This is significant because, according to Dr. Pearlman, some gonorrhea strains are a little pickier than others—that is, more resistant to specific medications. (If you’re familiar with the term “super gonorrhea,” it refers to gonorrhea that is resistant to antibiotics.)
This is particularly true for gonorrhea-related throat infections. “Getting retested after 7 to 14 days is especially important if you tested positive for throat gonorrhea because throat infections are more difficult to treat,” according to Dr. Pearlman.
And going back to having sex? Hold off until a week has elapsed since your last therapy session. (You should wait a week following your partner’s therapy if they also tested positive.)
Then you can get it on, provided there are no residual problems.
How to Stop Gonorrhea from Spreading
While there is never a 100 percent guarantee that a sexual act will not result in an STI, there are easy steps you may take to lower your chance of contracting gonorrhea.
The best defense against gonorrhea, as with most other sexually transmitted infections, is to be aware of your present condition and let prospective partners know about it before engaging in any form of sexual activity.
Next, find out what their current STI status is, and take protection when around people who are STI-positive or whose (current) STI status you do not know.
Lastly, get tested annually or after each new partner, whichever occurs first.