For women this could include pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can lead to ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the womb) and inability to have a baby. If left untreated, gonorrhea usually resolves naturally, but can also cause serious health problems. Gonorrhea is often asymptomatic in women, and the lack of discernible symptoms results in unrecognized and untreated infections. Throat infections can also occur and, in most cases, are asymptomatic, but mild sore throat or inflammation in the back of the throat could happen. In both men and women rectal infection often do not cause symptoms, but in some cases, you may have rectal and anal pain or discharge. Men might notice pain when urinating, pus-like discharge from the penis, or pain or swelling in one testicle. Women might notice irregular vaginal discharge, pain when urinating, discomfort in the lower part of the stomach, or bleeding from the vagina after sex or between periods. If you do have symptoms, they can appear in different forms. Many people with gonorrhea do not show any symptoms, with less than half of infected women expressing non-specific symptoms. For all neonates, the WHO STI guideline recommends topical ocular prophylaxis for the prevention of gonococcal and chlamydial ophthalmia neonatorum (eye infection). It can also be transmitted from mother-to-child during childbirth.Ĭorrect and consistent use of condoms significantly decreases the risk of infection during anal, vaginal or oral sexual contact. You can still get gonorrhea even if you had it in the past and got treatment for it. You can get gonorrhea by having unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has gonorrhea. In the Region of the Americas there were around 4.6 million new cases for females and 6.4 million for males in 2012, adding to the already around 1.9 million existing cases for females and 1.6 million existing cases for males.ġ0-40% of people infected with gonorrhea is also infected with chlamydia.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2012, 78 million new cases of gonorrhea happened among adults and youth aged 15–49 years worldwide, with around 27 million cases already present.

Because of widespread resistance, older and cheaper antibiotics have lost their effectiveness in treatment of the infection, and gonorrhea infection may become untreatable. Of all the STIs, gonorrhea is the most resistant to antibiotics. In women is mostly asymptomatic and it can cause serious health problems if not treated. Gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by bacteria in the world.

Male gonorrhea symptoms