A 1940s-era advertisement in South Carolina touts penicillin as a cure for gonorrhea. Since then, the disease has become much more resistant to penicillin. (South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control/Wikimedia Commons)
This is part of OnCentral's series that aims to educate readers on common sexually-transmitted diseases, including how to spot if you have one, treatment and prevention. You can also read about chlamydia.
Also known as "the clap" or "the drip," gonorrhea – with its unfortunately graphic nickname – affects approximately 600,000 women and men in the U.S. every year.
According to Planned Parenthood, the disease can be passed through vaginal, anal and oral sex, as well as from a woman to her newborn during childbirth.
Like with chlamydia, South L.A. has the highest prevalence of gonorrhea in the county. Statistics from the Department of Public Health show that in 2010 – the most recent year for which data is available – the sexually-transmitted disease (STD) affected 2,413 people, which comprises 25 percent of the county's cases.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine says that symptoms of gonorrhea usually manifest two to five days after infection, although sometimes they can take a month to appear and other times won't appear at all. Men's symptoms may include:
– Pain and burning while urinating
– Increased urinary frequency or urgency
– White, yellow or green discharge from the penis
– Red or swollen urethra (opening of the penis)
– Tender or swollen testicles
– Sore throat
And for women:
– Vaginal discharge
– Pain and burning while urinating
– Increased urinary frequency
– Sore throat
– Pain during sex
– Severe pain in lower abdomen (a sign that the infection has spread to the fallopian tubes and stomach)
– Fever (a sign the infection has spread to the fallopian tubes and stomach area)
For both men and women, fever, rash and arthritis-like symptoms might occur if the infection spreads to the bloodstream.
Folks are more likely to develop gonorrhea if they've had multiple sexual partners, have a partner with any history of an STD, don't use a condom during sex, or abuse alcohol or drugs.
As far as the diagnosis, there's a slew of medical tests and cultures that can confirm whether or not a person has the STD, but those have to be carried out by a medical professional. Once it's diagnosed, it can almost always be cured with antibiotics; if it's spread to the bloodstream or other areas, it's more serious, but still almost always gets better with treatment.
Both partners should be tested and treated, and retesting might be required to ensure the infection is completely gone. About half of women who have gonorrhea also have chlamydia; patients can get treated for both at the same time, if necessary.
If not treated, gonorrhea can cause serious complications. For women, those can include scarring of the fallopian tubes, pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility; for men, it can cause scarring of the urethra and for pus to collect around the urethra. Both men and women may also experience joint infections, heart valve infections and meningitis.
To prevent getting gonorrhea, medical experts recommend:
– Using condoms during vaginal, anal and oral intercourse.
– Not having sex (if you've already been infected) until your treatment is complete.
Planned Parenthood and the Centers for Disease and Prevention have more on gonorrhea.
