Gonorrhea treatment, diagnosis & prescriptions

Yes! By asking questions about your symptoms and ordering tests, a Maple doctor can diagnose your concern and prescribe gonorrhea treatment online.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that can live in the urethra, throat, rectum and cervix. Since it’s caused by bacteria, gonorrhea is very common and typically easily curable.

Both chlamydia and gonorrhea are caused by bacterial infections, but the bacteria that causes them are different. Chlamydia trachomatis is the bacteria chlamydia comes from, while gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. They have similar symptoms and similar treatments, but aren’t quite the same!

Both males and females experience gonorrhea discharge. In women it is creamy or tinged green, while in men it drips from the tip of the penis and resembles yellow, green or white pus. Both also experience pain while urinating, and the need to urinate more frequently. Pink eye (conjunctivitis) and sore throat can also affect both men and women.

Otherwise, there are a few symptoms that are typically unique to women, including:

• Anal itching or discharge
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding between periods
• Lower abdominal pain
• Pain during sex
• Sore throat
• Fatigue
• Swollen vaginal opening

A buildup of the neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria causes gonorrhea, which is passed along during vaginal, anal and oral sex.

No, you can’t get gonorrhea from kissing. It’s passed along by sexual contact and occasionally through childbirth.

Using condoms and dental dams during sex can prevent gonorrhea transmission. Getting tested for gonorrhea also helps, since it ensures you’re not passing it along to anyone else. Tests include a gonorrhea urine test, or a swab sample taken from the urethra, cervix or rectum.

Yes, gonorrhea is usually completely curable with antibiotics. The consequences of untreated gonorrhea are very detrimental to a person’s health however, so it’s important to follow through with treatment, even if you begin to feel better part way through your medication.

In men, these consequences include infertility due to prolonged inflammation of the epididymis, near the sperm ducts

In women, they include:

•  Pelvic inflammatory disease because of long term inflammation of the fallopian tubes and uterus which leads to scarring and infertility
• Pregnancy complications

Both men and women are also more susceptible to other sexually transmitted infections like HIV with untreated gonorrhea, and bloodstream infections that affect the joints.

Through proper use of antibiotics, gonorrhea can usually be completely cured. These gonorrhea treatments are usually a combination of medication taken through injection and orally. 

The treatment time for gonorrhea is about 7 days, at which point another dose may be required if the infection has not gone away. During that time it’s important not to engage in sexual activity.