Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is an STI, passed on during sex, especially if you don’t use condoms. And sometimes during kissing. You might have symptoms, but often you won’t notice it at all. Gonorrhea is easy to treat with antibiotics. That gets rid of the infection.

Falling multi-colored condoms on blue background

Gonorrhea signs and symptoms

You don’t always notice that you have gonorrhea. Women and girls often have no symptoms at all. Boys and men usually do. You might notice something straight after having sex with someone who has gonorrhea. But it could take a bit longer than that. For male symptoms up to 6 weeks, for female symptoms up to 3 months. And even with no symptoms at all, you can pass the infection on to someone else.

Male symptoms

Fluid coming out of your penis, mostly in the morning. It is white-yellow or green This is called ‘the drip’ or ‘the clap’
Pain when you pee
A burning sensation when you pee
Irritation around your anus if you’ve had anal sex
Blood or fluid in poo or diarrhea if you’ve had anal sex
Pain in your testicles
Sore throat, if you’ve had oral sex

Female symptoms

Women and girls often have no symptoms at all. Symptoms you may have are:

Pain when you pee
A burning sensation when you pee
Pain or vaginal bleeding during or after sex
Vaginal bleeding when you haven’t got your period
More fluid (discharge) than normal that could look different. It may not smell nice and may be yellow or green
Irritation around your anus if you’ve had anal sex
Blood or fluid in poo or diarrhea if you’ve had anal sex
Severe abdominal pain
Sore throat, if you’ve had oral sex

Medication to treat gonorrhea

You can get treatment for gonorrhea. That gets rid of the infection. The treatment is an injection. If you have been tested at CSGC and you have gonorrhea, you will receive your treatment at CSGC.

Do you think you could have this STI? Perhaps because:

You had sex without a condom
You have symptoms
You had sex with someone who has gonorrhea

Then go to your doctor or CSGC for an STI test.

Why should I have treatment?

If you don’t get treatment, then you may get severe symptoms. That doesn’t happen very often, but it is still a possibility if you don’t get treatment. It will affect men and women differently.

Women could get an infection of the fallopian tubes. That means:

You could become infertile. Then it will be difficult to have children
You have a higher chance of ectopic pregnancy. That means your child starts to grow outside the uterus and cannot survive

Men could have these symptoms:

An inflammation of the epididymis: your testicles hurt and become swollen
A prostate infection: you could have a fever and pain, as well as pain while peeing

Tell your sex partners

If you have gonorrhea, tell the people you’ve had sex with recently. Then they can get tested and treated too. Talk to the doctor or nurse about who you should tell.