It's the leading cause of pelvic inflammatory disease in women, and it can lead to male and female sterility. Two to eight days after infection, a man will get a yellowish discharge from a reddened urethra and experience frequent, painful urination. Women's symptoms may include lower abdominal pain, a whitish vaginal discharge, abnormal uterine bleeding, and painful urination. Gonorrhea can spread and cause complications. Some infected women will develop pelvic inflammatory disease and inflammation of the fallopian tubes, which can cause ectopic pregnancy and permanent sterility.
Sterility also can develop in men, and the infection can extend to the prostate and the rectum.
Doctors blast the disease with a minimum one-time dose of 4.8 million units of penicillin. Ampicillin or amoxicillin are sometimes used. The ingenious gonococci have mutated their chromosomes so that antibiotics do not have as much effect. There is increasing concern about the emergence of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea in this country. Fortunately, spectinomycin or ceftriaxone can be used to treat resistant strains.