Causes of gonorrhea

Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Bacteria responsible for development of gonorrhea are called Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and what makes things much worse is that these bacteria can be easily transmitted from one person to another. They can stay alive in different kinds of surroundings like in eye, anus, mouth, genitals and throat, especially since moisturized areas suit them fine. These bacteria cause gonorrhea, which is one of the leading STD’s in the States, besides chlamydia.

This disease is very communicable and it affects both genders equally. In women, it can cause sterility and sometimes affected person doesn’t even know that she has this disease because there are no symptoms. If the disease is not treated, it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women and epididymitis, prostatitis or infection of the urethra in men.

It looks like every individual who is sexually active can be affected, but the most of the patients are teenagers and individuals from the age of 15 to 29. It is important to say that the individuals who have history of this disease don’t have resistance to the bacteria.

Main signs of gonorrhea

Signs of this disease can occur 2 to 10 days after the infection, though the fact is that sometimes it may even take a month after catching gonorrhea for symptoms to develop. The symptoms usually appear in men, while women often have no signs of the infection. Men can experience colored discharge from their penis, pain and swelling of the testicles and discomfort while urinating.

Symptoms in women include colored discharge from the vagina, painful sensation in the pelvic area, discomfort while urinating, vulvitis, mild bleeding after sexual act, bleeding between periods, and conjunctivitis. If the infection affects the anus, it can result in irritation of the back passage, and pain during bowel movement. The bacteria can appear in the throat due to oral sex and it can cause irritation there.

Gonorrhea diagnosis and the treatment

If you are concerned about this disease, you can visit a doctor and he will take some samples from your genitals, or maybe even rectum and throat, and send them to a laboratory. The samples will be tested for gonorrhea and sometimes even chlamydia, and the results will come after couple of days. Antibiotic drugs are used to treat this disease and they can be injected or taken by mouth. The patient mustn’t be sexually active until the condition is completely healed. Also, doctors can suggest to their patients to inform every person they had sexual contact with, about their condition. Using condoms can be a good prevention for this kind of infection.