Combating Today’s Gonorrhea: From Diagnosis to Treatment

It seems as if new sicknesses and diseases pop up overnight—especially sexually transmitted diseases. There always seems to be a scare in the media about something new and dangerous. While this may be daunting and true, let’s not forget the old faithful, the ODs—or original diseases. These too, are still out there wreaking havoc amongst those who engage in sexual activity. One of these oldies but baddies is gonorrhea. A disease that conjures up images of sailors on shore leave, shots in the butt, and insane old men locked behind castle walls. Thankfully, there is new and better treatment for these old diseases—and gonorrhea is no exception. Instead of all the stereotypical images that the word gonorrhea conjures in the mind’s eye, let’s look at what it really is and leave out all the myths and fables. First, gonorrhea is a bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea. It is quite prevalent in today’s society with over 500,000 brand new cases a year reported to doctors. (Chances are quite good that the exact amount of new infections is significantly higher than this number, but they go unreported.) Treatment has been available for gonorrhea for many years, including quite questionable practices back at the turn of the century. These so-called treatment options may have worsened the patient’s health. Today, however, there are quite good treatment options for the gonorrhea sufferer. Where does gonorrhea manifest itself in an infected person? As stated above, gonorrhea is a bacterium and thus grows unchecked in the wet and moist areas of a human being’s body. Gonorrhea seems to grow quite rapidly in the moist areas of the reproductive tract, including the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes. All places where you do not want a harmful bacterium to be growing! The gonorrhea bacterium also has success growing inside a person’s throat and mouth, the urethra, the anus and inside people’s eyes. Without treatment gonorrhea can be quite a serious health risk for both men and women. Without treatment, gonorrhea can commonly cause pelvic inflammatory disease. This can be quite painful and includes fever, headaches, and abdominal pain. Pelvic inflammatory disease—or PID as it is called—can affect the fallopian tubes of a woman and cause infertility, as well as the dreaded ectopic pregnancy. These pregnancies, which occur outside of the uterus, can be life threatening for mother as well as the baby. Regarding men with gonorrhea who do not undergo treatment, epididymitis is quite common. This painful condition can cause infertility in men by infecting the testicles and the tender ducts that attach to the testicles. In both men and women, gonorrhea minus treatment can spread to the blood and/or joints causing many life-threatening situations in the infected patient. Gonorrhea in the bloodstream also causes both men and women to be susceptible to other STDs, especially viruses such as HIV. If an individual is infected with gonorrhea, their entire system is working way below its natural strength. This opens the door to many other sicknesses that the body would otherwise ward off naturally. Treatment of any and all of these problems is available and should be taken advantage of—for the sake of your health and the health of your loved ones (and lovers). Treatment for gonorrhea begins with a visit to a certified STD center to ascertain if the individual is positive for the disease. If they are the doctor can prescribe any of several antibiotics that will attack the disease. Be aware that there have been several drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea found around the world. This is another reason why treatment through a certified doctor is so very important. The gonorrhea sufferer is also commonly infected with one or two other STDs and the doctor will typically test for these as well in order to successfully treat you back to good health.