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One of the most dangerous features
of gonorrhoea is that most women (some 70 to 80 percent) experience
no symptoms until the disease has already done serious damage, weeks
or months after they were infected.
If you do have early symptoms, they
usually surface 7 to 21 days after infection and may include these:
a cloudy yellow, foul-smelling vaginal discharge; pain during
intercourse; itching, swelling, redness, or soreness of the vulva (the
opening to the vagina); heavy menstrual bleeding; pain or discomfort
in the lower abdomen; and painful or frequent urination.
Most men, on the other hand, develop
highly noticeable symptoms within 2 to 5 days of exposure, although
they occasionally appear two weeks or so after exposure. On rare
occasions, men may have no symptoms. If you're male and you've been
infected, a fluid that looks like pus may drip uncontrollably out of
your penis after you urinate (this explains the nickname "the drip").
The tip of your penis may also be red and irritated, or you might
have a foul-smelling yellowish discharge from the urethra or need to
urinate frequently; you may also feel a burning sensation while
urinating. (These symptoms can disappear later, but urination
usually becomes painful enough to send men to the doctor.) Pain in
the scrotum, testicles, or lower abdomen is another common symptom.
In the case of anal gonorrhoea, both
men and women may experience rectal pain or itching or have a
constant urge to move their bowels. Often, though, there are no
symptoms. In pharyngeal (throat) gonorrhoea, which is less common,
people of both sexes can get a severe sore throat or show no
symptoms at all. |
