A person with gonorrhea often has no symptoms, but can have a wide range of symptoms, including painful urination and abnormal discharge from the genitals. Left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to sterility and other serious problems. Gonorrhea grows most easily in the urethra, cervix and rectum, due to the supportive environments there. The highest number of cases are reported in the summer, while the lowest number are reported in winter and early spring.
Gonorrhea is caused by the bacterium neisseria gonorrhoeae .
About 80 percent of infected women and 10 percent of infected men do not develop symptoms. Men probably spread the infection more easily to women than women spread it to men. The rate of gonorrhea infection in the U.S. is the highest of any industrialized country. According to the CDC, the infection rate is roughly 8 times higher than Canada and 50 times higher than Sweden. Gonorrhea is most often transmitted sexually, through anal, oral and vaginal sex.