Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea a sexually transmitted disease, characterized by an unusual discharge from the vagina for women and painful urination or penile discharge for men.



Gonorrhea is a curable sexually transmitted disease (STD), second only to chlamydia as the most frequently reported STD in the U.S. Chlamydia infections are caused by bacteria called Chlamydia trachomatis and gonococcal infections are caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Like chlamydia, gonorrhea is a leading cause of infertility, with complications costing more than $1 billion in the U.S. each year. If you are young and sexually active, you should consider getting tested for this disease. If you are pregnant, you should be screened early in your pregnancy for the disease.
Gonorrhea rose to epidemic proportions in the 1960s and 1970s. Fortunately, this widespread STD has gradually declined to historic lows since a national control program was instituted in 1975. In 2002, 351,852 cases of gonorrhea were reported to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; however, about 650,000 cases are believed to occur annually. The highest rates of infection are found among 15- to 19-year-old women and 20- to 24-year-old men.
Gonorrhea is primarily spread during sexual intercourse, whether it is vaginal, oral or anal. Even without anal sex, women can sometimes become infected in the anus via contiguous spread from the vagina. Although less common, gonorrhea can be transmitted by oral sex. As with most STDs, infection is transmitted more readily from man to woman than from woman to man. Gonorrhea can be transmitted between male partners through sexual contact.
For women, the most common site of initial infection is the cervix (cervicitis) and the urethra (urethritis). Without treatment, the bacterium can spread into the uterus and fallopian tubes. The resulting infection is called pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID causes scarring of the fallopian tubes, which can block sperm from traveling to an egg and thus cause infertility. This damage of the tubes also can lead to tubal or ectopic pregnancy, in which a fertilized egg is implanted outside the uterus, such as in a fallopian tube. This condition may be fatal if not diagnosed and treated. In addition to PID, untreated gonorrhea can lead to serious systemic infections, including disseminated gonococcal infection or gonococcal arthritis.
Pregnant women infected with gonorrhea also are at higher risk of premature delivery. And when the infection is passed on to the infant, gonorrhea can cause serious eye infections if left untreated. Transmission to a newborn results from exposure to the mother's infected cervix during birth.
It's fairly common that women infected with gonorrhea are also infected with chlamydia; both these bacterial STDs are often present without symptoms and are transmitted in the same way. Women who have gonorrhea often have no recognizable symptoms until the infection has spread into the upper genital tract and they experience pain from pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). In men, gonorrhea usually causes a discharge from the penis and painful urination. However, men may be infected and have no symptoms.
In high-risk populations, persons diagnosed with gonorrhea are routinely treated for chlamydia infection at the same time.