The popularity of STDs can really affect a lot of individuals suffering from these diseases.
That is why prompt information regarding infections like Gonorrhea must be disseminated to educate the public.
Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease which is also popularly termed 'the clap'.
Gonorrheal complications are serious and can lead to weakening or permanent disability of the patient's immune system.
Gonorrhea patients are more susceptible than others to HIV that causes AIDS.
Furthermore, HIV infected people who also experience Gonorrhea turn out to be easy conduits of HIV to others not having Gonorrhea.
Among women, gonorrheal infection can lead to Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and/or increase the risk of developing ectopic pregnancy which is characterized by fever or/and abdominal pain.
In intense cases, PID can lead to serious and at times really dangerous eventualities: formation of abscesses, recurrent pelvic pain, damage of the fallopian tubes, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy.
The abscesses are pockets filled with pus and they are formed within the body and are very difficult to be cured.
When PID causes harm to the fallopian tubes, the patient become sterile or even run the danger of having the life-threatening condition of ectopic pregnancy.
In ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg develops not in the uterus, but in a fallopian tube.
Among men, Gonorrhea can be painful, long lasting and life threatening; it can lead to the painful condition of epididymitis.
It affects the ducts connected to the testicles and if untreated, epididymitis can cause that sterility.
When Gonorrhea spreads to the joints, it turns out to be grave.
Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection, and a tremendously contagious one; an estimated 2.
5 million Americans contracts this disease annually.
The symptoms of gonorrhea generally appear within one to three weeks after infection.
In men, these symptoms comprise of a white to yellow-green penile discharge, burning pain while urinating and deep, aching pain or pressure in the genitals.
In women, there may be painful and frequent urination, deep, aching pain in the lower abdomen and, seldom, a vaginal discharge.
Pharyngeal Gonorrhea, in the mouth and throat, may generate a sore throat; rectal gonorrhea sporadically causes discomfort in the area around the anus and a slight discharge.
Yet, in 10 to 20 percent of men and up to 80 percent of women, there are no apparent symptoms at all.
Untreated, STD Gonorrhea usually affects the urethra in men, making urination very painful and difficult; it may progress to chronic obstruction and infertility.
In women, the disease can assault the fallopian tubes and other pelvic organs, causing pain, fever and, very probable, infertility.
The threat of infertility increases with each infection: 75 percent of women who have had three infections involving the pelvic organs are infertile.
In both sexes, untreated gonorrhea may result in arthritis, or in a widespread bacterial infection affecting the heart and nervous system.
If a woman has active Gonorrhea at the time of delivery, her baby may have permanent blindness.
That is why it is important to get regular and routine check-ups at the various STD testing sites near you.
Luckily, once it is diagnosed, gonorrhea can be treated swiftly and effectively with antibiotics.
A diagnosis of gonorrhea can be made by a microscopic examination of the discharge or a cervical smear; or, more dependably, by a culture that takes two days to incubate.
The culture should be continual one week after treatment.