How serious is gonorrhea and can you cure this disease forever? Find out the symptoms, treatment and the seriousness of this problem.
First of all, what actually is gonorrhea? It is one type of many sexually transmittable illnesses that affects the rectum, throat and genitals. Both men and women can have this infection, especially in younger years of their life.
It develops by sexual intercourse with a person with gonorrhea. The only way you could prevent it is by having safe sexual intercourse. The risk is higher if you change partners regularly without knowing whether they have this disease or not.
The safest way to have sexual intercourse is with a single, previously tested partner and be in a long-term relationship. If you already have a partner, and you’ve both been tested for gonorrhea, then you’re perfectly safe.
People who belong to a high risk group are gays and bisexuals, due to anal intercourse. The bacterium that causes this disease, Neisseria gonorrhoae, usually develops in the anus, so this group of people is at utmost risk.
Nonetheless, any sexually active person, ergo every adult, can get gonorrhea. This is because the bacterium can easily go from the anus to the genitals if you’re not wiping right after going to the bathroom.
How serious is gonorrhea?
If you don’t treat it on time, gonorrhea causes permanent and very serious recurring health problems. So, how serious is gonorrhea actually? First of all, it can spread into your blood and throughout the whole body. This can be lethal! Secondly, in women, it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and in men, epididymitis or sometimes even infertility.
Moreover, if a woman has gonorrhea and gets pregnant, the chances are that the baby will also get it and be born with this disease. Furthermore, this can cause the baby blindness or a mortal blood infection. So, if you’re planning on having a baby, test yourself for gonorrhea.
Although if you don’t treat it it can be serious, luckily, there are gonorrhea treatments. When you check yourself and the diagnosis is gonorrhea, your doctor will prescribe the necessary therapy and medications.
Then, which are the symptoms?
Unfortunately, here comes the bad part. In most cases, in both men and women, there are no symptoms of gonorrhea whatsoever. Some men may get a burning sensation during urination or a weird penis discharge. Also, which is extremely rare, their testicles can become swollen and painful.
In women, as well, the symptoms of discharge and burning sensation can be present, or there can be a weird bleeding in-between periods. But these symptoms are similar with regular vaginal infections or candida, so many women don’t take them seriously.
Common symptoms for both men and women when it comes to the anus are itching, bleeding, yellowish discharge and change in or irregular bowel movements.