Treatment for gonorrhea

Several antibiotics can successfully cure gonorrhea in adults and adolescents. It is important to take all of the prescribed medication to cure gonorrhea. Treated efficiently, antibiotics can cure 95%  to 99% of all cases.

Some Treatment for Gonorrhea options mentioned in the CDC Report are:

• Cefixime 400 mg orally in a single dose
• Ceftriaxone 125 mg IM in a single dose
• Ciprofloxacin 500 mg orally in a single dose
• Ofloxacin 400 mg orally in a single dose, PLUS Azithromycin 1 g orally  in a single dose
• Doxycycline 100 mg orally twice a day for 7 days

The doctor may prescribe a single-dose injection of an antibiotic such as ceftriaxone (Rocephin) or a single-dose pill such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro).

If you are pregnant or younger than 18, the doctor will usually prescribe the shot instead of the pill.

Drug-Resistant Strains

Drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea are increasing in many parts of the world, including the United States, and successful treatment of gonorrhea is becoming more difficult. Previously, a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones (examples are ciprofloxacin (Cipro, Cipro XR), ofloxacin (Floxin), and levofloxacin (Levaquin) was widely used to treat gonorrhea. Beause of increasing resistance of many tested samples of n. gonorrheae to the fluoroquinolone drugs, the CDC now recommends that only one class of antibiotics, the cephalosphorins, be used to treat gonorrheal infections.

Re-Infection

People who have had gonorrhea  and have been treated  can get the disease again if they have sexual contact with persons infected with gonorrhea. If a person's gonorrhea symptoms continue even after receiving  treatment, he or she should return to a doctor to be reevaluated.

Other Sexually-Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

Persons with gonorrhea symptoms should also be treated for other sexually-transmitted diseases or infections. Many people with gonorrhea also have chlamydia, another STD, antibiotics for both infections are usually given together.

Permanent Damage

As noted, elsewhere, although medication will stop the infection, it will not repair whatever permanent damage done by the disease. For instance, if the complications to untreated gonorrhea symptoms rendered a person infertile or prone to ectopic pregnancy, the antibiotic medications can no longer reverse the damage.

Serious and permanent complications are avoided, if gonorrhea symptoms are detected early and treated immediately. If you experienced any of the gonorrhea symptoms described in the Home page of this site and suspect an infection, don't waste time. Call your doctor immediately.

How will your doctor determine if you have gonorrhea infection?

In order to do this, the doctor will conduct a physical examination. Gonorrhea infection is often indicated by pain or tenderness in the vaginal area in women and a pus-filled discharge from the vagina or penis, along with high white blood cell count and fever.

Diagnosis: Gonorrhea Infection?

The most reliable method of detecting gonorrhea infection is laboratory culture testing, of course. The doctor or nurse will take a sample from the discharge or from parts of the body most likely to be infected like the urethra (where you pass urine), the cervix (opening to the womb), the rectum, or the throat. This sample is then taken to the laboratory and incubated to see if the gonorrhea bacteria will grow from the sample. Normally, it takes about 2 days for the gonorrhea infection to be detected using this method.

Mot hospitals today and many doctors' offices have urine or discharge kits that are used for screening gonorrhea infection. The procedure, called a Gram stain, allows the doctor to see the gonorrhea bacterium under a microscope from the sample (the stain). This procedure is deemed not be as sensitive as laboratory culture testing but is reliable enough for screening purposes.

Gonorrhea complications males

Gonorrhea is closely related to other sexually-transmitted diseases. In many cases, persons who are infected with gonorrhea also have Chlamydia, another STD. It is often advisable, if you're undergoing treatment for gonorrhea, to be tested for Chlamydia, as well. If you're positive for both, antibiotics for these two infections can be administered together.

Left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to serious and permanent health problems and long-term organ damage for both men and women. This is particularly devastating to women because for many of them, gonorrhea is a "silent disease." An estimated fifty percent or half of those women who are infected will not show gonorrhea symptoms or will mistake gonorrhea for mild bladder infection.

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)

This is perhaps the most serious threat/complication women infected with gonorrhea could face, because gonorrhea is one of the most common causes of PID in women. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 1 million women develop PID in the United States, every year. Like in many cases of gonorrhea, a large percentage of women with PID also do not exhibit its symptoms. PID symptoms can be severe and can include vaginal discharge, abdominal pain, and fever. PID can lead to internal abscesses (pus-filled pockets that are hard to cure) and chronic pelvic pain.

PID can seriously damage the fallopian tubes causing infertility and a higher risk of ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition in which a fertilized egg develops outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube.

Epididymitis

In men, gonorrhea can lead to this painful condition affecting the testicles. Left untreated, epididymitis can lead to infertility.

HIV/AIDS

Due to lowered immunity, people infected with gonorrhea can more easily contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Studies also show that HIV-infected persons with gonorrhea are more likely to transmit the the HIV virus to someone else.

Arthritis, Meningitis, and Endocarditis

The gonorrhea bacterium has the ability to travel in your bloodstream and spread throughout the body. When this happens the infection will now attack the mucous membrane in the different parts of your body. Symptoms can be severe and in some cases life-threatening. These include inflammation of the joints (arthritis), inflammation in the brain (meningitis), and infection of the heart (endocarditis).

Infant Blindness

As noted in Symptoms and Risks pages, mothers with gonorrhea can pass the infection to their babies during childbirth. Gonorrheal infection of the mucous membrane of a newborn's eyes, if untreated, can lead to permanent blindness.

As we have seen, gonorrhea, left untreated, can lead to serious and damaging complications. If you are experiencing any of the gonorrhea symptoms (described in the Home page) and suspects gonorrhea infection, see your doctor immediately. Even if you don't have the symptoms, but have had sex with someone infected, have yourself tested right away.

Antibiotics (please see Treatment page) can stop the infection dead on its tracks. However, if you have waited too long, no amount of antibiotics or medicine can repair whatever permanent damage the bacteria may have done in your system.

The key to a successful treatment of gonorrhea is early detection and immediate medication.

How can gonorrhea be prevented?

Gonorrhea is a sexually-transmitted infection that can be spread through all forms of sexual activity including oral, vaginal, or anal sex. Although any person who is sexually-active has the potential to contract gonorrhea at any time, most of those infected are people under the age of 30.

In the US, seventy-five percent (75%) of all  cases involve men and women between the ages of 16-30.  A woman who have vaginal intercourse with a gonorrhea-infected man will have 60-90 percent chance of being infected.

A man who have vaginal sex with an with an infected woman will have a lower 30-50 percent chance of becoming infected. An infected mother can potentially transmit the infection to her newborn baby during vaginal childbirth.

There are several ways you can avoid contracting gonorrhea.

Abstention

Easier said than done for many people, but perhaps in today's STD-challenged situation, this is the only way that's one hundred percent effective in preventing transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea.

Limit your Partners

The ideal arrangement is for you to be in a monogamous long-term relationship with a partner who was tested and is known to be uninfected. If you are unable to stick to one partner, practice safe sex and avoid sexual contact with high-risk partners.

Latex Condoms

When used consistently and correctly, condoms can effectively reduce the risk of STD transmission.

Gonorrhea Symptoms

Gonorrhea is a common sexually-transmitted disease (STD). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 700, 000 people contract gonorrhea every year here in the U.S. We will discuss gonorrhea symptoms shortly, but before that, some of you might ask, just what is gonorrhea? How is it transmitted? Is there treatment for gonorrhea?

What is gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea, commonly known as the "clap,"  is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can affect both men and women. It is caused by a bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which grows and multiply in the cervix (opening to the womb), uterus (the womb), and the fallopian tube in women; and in the urethra (where the urine passes) in both men and women. It can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus.

Gonorrhea can be transmitted through contact with the penis, vagina, mouth, or anus of an infected person. An infected mother can also pass on the disease to her baby during childbirth.

What are Gonorrhea Symptoms? 

In most men, the symptoms usually appear within 2-5 days after infection. There are instances, however, when the symptoms take as long as 30 days to appear or rarely, do not appear at all.

For men, these gonorrhea symptoms include a burning sensation when urinating, frequent urination, or a thick white, yellow, or green discharge from the penis. Sometimes, gonorrhea symptoms can include painful or swollen testicles. This indicates an infection of the urethra. The penis will probably look redder and tender than usual, and there might be swelling of the glands in the groin area.

Most infected women, on the other hand, do not usually exhibit gonorrhea symptoms or quite often only have mild symptoms. Because a large number of women do not show signs of the infection, gonorrhea is sometimes referred to as the "silent infection."  This is patently dangerous for women, because gonorrhea can lead to serious and permanent complications if left untreated.

In the early stages, gonorrhea symptoms in women can commonly include frequent and painful urination (a burning sensation when urinating) and bleeding after sex.

Later symptoms in women  include nausea, fever,  vomiting, bleeding between periods, and a thick yellow or bloody vaginal discharge.

Symptoms of rectal infection includes itchy anus, anal discharge, soreness, bleeding, or painful bowel movement.

Gonorrhea infection in the throat may cause a sore throat, or a pus-filled growth in the tonsil or at the back of the throat, and difficulty in swallowing. Usually, though,  no symptom can be observed.

If you have  experienced any of the gonorrhea symptoms explained above, you should take that as a signal to stop having sex and to consult a medical professional immediately. It is also advised that when a person is diagnosed to be infected with gonorrhea, he or she should tell  his or her sex partner(s) of the infection. This will ensure that the sex partner will know what gonorrhea symptoms to look out for and to seek medical help and treatment immediately.