Gonorrhoea is a common bacterial infection that can be passed on during unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex.
Symptoms
Typical symptoms of gonorrhoea include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, pain when peeing and, in women, bleeding between periods. It can cause pain, bleeding and discharge from the bottom.
Around 1 in 10 infected men and almost half of infected women do not experience any symptoms.
Treatment
Gonorrhoea is usually treated with a single antibiotic injection. With effective treatment, most of your symptoms should improve within a few days.
It's usually recommended you attend a follow-up appointment 2 weeks after treatment so another test can be carried out to see if you're clear of infection.
You should avoid having sex until you have been told you no longer have the infection.
Complications
Men
- Painful infection in the testicles
- Eye infection
Women
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) – this can affect your chances of having a baby and increase the risk of an ectopic pregnancy. You can also get chronic pain.
- Problems in pregnancy – including passing the infection to your baby during delivery
- In rare cases, when gonorrhoea has been left untreated, it can spread through the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections in other parts of the body (sepsis).
