Although the most common way of getting gonorrhea is through various forms of sexual contact, newborn babies can also contract it from their infected mothers at the time of birth. Many people learn that they have gonorrhea when informed by a sexual partner who was diagnosed with this infection. If symptoms are present they can appear two to twenty days after exposure, three to five days being average.
Some men report a sensation of tingling or itching inside their penis.
Abdominal pain, abnormal menstruation and painful intercourse can also occur. If PID is not treated tubular pregnancies or sterility may result. Permanent damage to the testicles or sterility may result. Gonorrhea can be diagnosed by taking samples or cultures of secretions from the penis, vagina, throat or rectum. The organism is then detected from the culture in a laboratory.