🛳️ 😥 💜 Gonorrhea: prevention, symptoms and treatment. Prevention of the main forms of gonorrhea 🐁 👨🏻‍🎤 🐣

Gonorrhea is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that are sexually transmitted from the body to the body. The infection affects both women and men equally. Most often, the urethra, rectum or throat suffers from it. In women, the infection can also spread to the cervix.

Prevention of gonorrhea is considered relatively mild, as the disease is usually transmitted through sexual contact. Nevertheless, newborns can also suffer from it if the infection is diagnosed in the mother. In newborns, bacteria most often affect the eyes.

Gonorrhea is a fairly common ailment that in most cases does not cause any symptoms, which is why many people do not even suspect that they have a bacterial infection.

In order to minimize the risk of contracting a disease such as gonorrhea, prevention is carried out using one of the following alternative methods:

abstinence from sexual intercourse;
use of latex condoms during sexual intercourse;
compliance with the principle of mutual monogamy (intimate relationships with a single partner).

All three of these methods can equally be used to prevent other sexually transmitted infections.

Symptoms

The patient does not always immediately find out that he has become infected, therefore, to prevent a possible disease, doctors recommend that you familiarize yourself with background information on the topic of gonorrhea in advance. The causative agent, transmission mechanism, symptoms, prevention, treatment - all this is described in sufficient detail and in a language accessible to a layman. The information presented will be especially useful if you still find signs of malaise. Most often they appear in the genital tract.

If the genital tract is infected

Gonorrhea in men can be diagnosed by the following symptoms:

painful urination ;
unusual discharge from the glans penis, outwardly similar to pus;
pain or swelling in one testicle.

In women, the disease can manifest itself as follows:

an increase in vaginal discharge;
painful urination;
vaginal bleeding between menstruation, in particular after vaginal intercourse;
stomach ache;
pelvic pain.

If other parts of the body are infected

If you suspect a disease such as gonorrhea, the preventive measures taken after the onset of characteristic symptoms will already be useless. Although the infection is more often found in the genital tract, it can also affect:

The rectum. In this case, itching in the anus, purulent discharge from the rectum, spots of bright red blood on toilet paper and sudden difficulties in emptying the bowels (the need to strain and push, constipation, other functional disorders) are considered signs of infection.
Eyes. If gonorrhea affects the eyes, pain, increased sensitivity to light and purulent discharge from one or both eyes are noted.
Throat. Symptoms of pathology are sore throat and swollen lymph nodes in the neck.
Ligaments. If one or more ligaments are infected with bacteria (septic, or infectious, arthritis), the affected areas can become warm, red, swollen and extremely painful, especially with movements.

When to see a doctor

Sign up for a medical consultation if you discover one or more of the above symptoms of infection. Even if the symptoms of the disease have a different reason, gonorrhea is widespread in the modern world - preventive measures recommended by a qualified doctor will help you find peace of mind.

Consult a specialist if an infectious disease is diagnosed with your partner. Since gonorrhea can be asymptomatic, you should check with your doctor even if there is no suspicion of infection. Lack of adequate treatment due to an asymptomatic illness will result in reinfection of your partner.

Causes

gonorrhea pathogen transmission mechanism symptoms prevention

Pathology is caused by bacteria called "gonococci", more precisely - Neisseria gonorrhoeae. These harmful microorganisms are able to travel from person to person during sexual contact, including oral, anal and vaginal sex.

Risk factors

Prevention of gonorrhea in men and women may not be effective enough if patients are at risk. Circumstances that increase the likelihood of contracting an infectious disease include:

young age;
the emergence of a new partner;
frequent change of partners;
gonorrhea diagnosed in the past, even if it was completely cured;
the presence of other untreated sexually transmitted infections.

Complications

In the absence of timely treatment, an ailment can lead to the development of serious complications, including:

Female infertility. If left untreated, the infection can spread to the uterus and fallopian tubes and thereby cause pelvic inflammatory disease. The latter, in turn, leads to the appearance of scars on the fallopian tubes and complications of pregnancy, and subsequently to infertility. Inflammation of the pelvic organs is a very serious disease that requires immediate treatment.
Male infertility If specific prophylaxis of gonorrhea is ignored and the man does not pay due attention to his health condition, epididymitis develops - an inflammatory process in a small coiled tube (appendage) in the back of the testicles where the seminal canals (epididymis) are located. Such inflammation can be easily removed with the help of appropriate therapy, however, ignoring the ailment can lead to male infertility.
The spread of infection to ligaments and other parts of the body. Gonorrhea-causing bacteria can enter the bloodstream and infect other parts of the body, including ligaments. As a result, skin rashes, fever, sores on the skin, pain, swelling and stiffness of the ligaments are observed.
Increased risk of HIV / AIDS. Gonorrhea increases the patient’s vulnerability to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), leading to a terrible diagnosis of AIDS. If a patient is found to have gonorrhea and HIV at the same time, he will almost completely transmit both infections to his sexual partner.
Complications in children. If the mother is diagnosed with gonorrhea, prevention in children becomes an equally important task. Newborn babies born through natural childbirth are at risk. In them, infection can cause blindness, damage to the skull, and the development of other infectious diseases.

Before a visit to the doctor

If you have any suspicions, you should first contact your therapist. If the disease has already caused complications, the doctor will redirect you to the appropriate specialists.

Since medical consultations are often limited in nature by nature, it is better to prepare for a visit to the clinic in advance. The following measures are recommended:

Ask if you need to follow any rules or restrictions before visiting your doctor. In some cases, specialists require early adherence to a certain diet or a temporary refusal from any actions or bad habits.
Make a detailed list of all the symptoms you experience - even if it seems that these sensations, discharge, or other signs of the disease are not directly related to the reason for your visit.
List on paper all the medications you are currently taking. Vitamin or mineral complexes and other biologically active food additives should also be included in this list.
Write down the questions you want to ask a specialist.

Questions to the doctor

Since the consultation is carried out strictly in the allotted time and is often not long enough, prepare in advance the questions that you plan to ask the therapist. It is advisable to rank them from the most important to the least important. If the main topic of your visit is the treatment and prevention of gonorrhea, questions may sound as follows:

Is gonorrhea the cause of my symptoms?
What research do I need to go through?
Should I be screened for other sexually transmitted infections?
Does my partner need to be checked for gonorrhea too?
How long should I wait before resuming sexual activity?
How to prevent this disease in the future?
What complications of infection should you be wary of?
I am pregnant. How is the prevention of gonorrhea in newborns?
Is there an alternative to the medication prescribed by you?
Can I get acquainted with thematic printed materials? Or would you recommend specific websites?
How do I determine if I need to come in after treatment?

Of course, you can supplement this approximate list with any other questions that concern you. And even more so, do not be shy to ask the doctor what you thought was incomprehensible in his explanations.

What to expect from a doctor

If you are concerned about alleged gonorrhea, prevention, treatment, and diagnosis should be recommended by your doctor. To give such recommendations, the specialist will first ask you his own questions. Among them are usually listed the following:

When did you first start experiencing the symptoms of an infectious disease?
What nature are the symptoms of the disease? Do they last - or do they happen from time to time?
How intense are the symptoms of malaise?
Have you been infected with sexually transmitted infections?

Before taking

Even if during the appointment for a consultation in the clinic you were not told what can and should not be done before a doctor’s appointment, experts recommend that you refrain from sexual intercourse until the visit to the therapist. Notify your partner that you have found signs of an infectious disease so that he can timely contact the clinic and undergo appropriate examinations.

Diagnostics

In order to know for sure whether gonorrhea prophylaxis has been effective or if harmful bacteria are still present in your body, your doctor should analyze the cell sample. Cell samples are collected in one of two ways:

Analysis of urine. A standardized study reveals the presence of bacteria in the urethra.
A smear of the affected area. A swab from the throat, urethra, vagina or rectum allows you to collect microorganisms, the nature of which experts will subsequently determine in the laboratory.

Especially for women, some pharmacological companies produce kits for the diagnosis of gonorrhea at home. The kit includes materials for self-taking a smear from the vagina. The collected secretions along with samples of vaginal epithelial cells are also sent for research to a specialized laboratory. As a rule, such kits include questionnaires in which you can indicate in what way the consumer wants to receive information about the test results. Sometimes the results of the study are available online, but in most cases, manufacturers offer consumers just to call the free hotline.

Adult treatment

Prevention of gonorrhea in women and men does not always produce the desired effect. In case of infection with harmful microorganisms, the doctor prescribes antibiotic treatment. Considering that new strains of gonococci resistant to traditional medicines have recently appeared, many experts recommend the use of the ceftriaxone antibiotic in the form of an injection simultaneously with azithromycin or doxycycline. The last two antibiotics are taken orally.

According to the results of recent studies, it can be concluded that the use of gemifloxacin or an injection of gentamicin in combination with oral administration of azithromycin is characterized by high efficiency. This option is especially relevant for patients with an allergy to ceftriaxone.

Treating children

If the mother has gonorrhea, the prevention and treatment of the disease in newborns begins immediately after they are born. To prevent the development of infection, special drops are instilled into the eyes of young children. If the disease still affects the eyes, they switch to antibiotic treatment.