This disease existed in ancient times, because the fact that gonorrhea is a source of impurity, the Bible says. This is one of the most dangerous sexually transmitted infections (STDs). Many people know this disease under the name "clapper", and although this is considered the common name of the disease, but in Germany this name is official.
What is this?
Since this disease was mentioned even in ancient texts, its symptoms, treatment, and drugs are known to many. Gonorrhea is no more common in women than in men, although the risk of infection varies. Most often, infection occurs between the ages of nineteen and thirty-five. The disease affects the he alth of the infected extremely negatively, it can affect both individual organs and entire systems. Recently, there have been more cases when gonorrhea is asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. In this case, people rarely go to the doctor.or self-medicate, which may cause the infection to remain in the body.
The consequences will be sad. Since gonorrhea can also affect other organs, over time, the respiratory tract, cardiovascular and nervous systems will be infected. It is even possible to damage the joints, and in extreme cases - blood poisoning (sepsis). And it can lead to death!
Gonorrhea is a fairly common disease that gives severe complications. It often results in both female and male infertility. Not only adults, but also children are susceptible to infection. If a mother has a disease, she is more likely to pass it on to her baby during childbirth. While antibiotic treatment of gonorrhea almost always works for both men and women, it can cause complications during pregnancy.
How is gonorrhea transmitted?
It is known that the fair sex is more sensitive not only to their he alth, but also to the choice of sexual partners, so knowing how the disease is transmitted and what are its symptoms can protect against infection.
In almost all cases, the disease is transmitted during sexual contact, and it does not matter whether the sex was traditional or not. Oral sex is no less likely to be infected.
And although the percentage of patients with gonorrhea among women and men is about the same, the probability of infection in women is higher. After a single sexual contact with a gonorrhea-infected woman, a manthe disease is transmitted in 30-40% of cases. A woman with a single sexual intercourse with a man with gonorrhea will become infected in 85% of cases! This is due to the anatomical structure of the genitourinary system, as well as the hormonal specifics of the female body.
Asymptomatic during the incubation period. This is, most often, a rather short time, from three to fifteen days, but sometimes the infection may not manifest itself for a month. Doctors share two types of gonorrhea: fresh (no more than two months have passed after infection), and if the patient is infected for more than two months - chronic gonorrhea. Treatment and symptoms are the same, however, many patients with gonorrhea can be almost asymptomatic, this occurs in 50% of cases.
A woman who notices even mild symptoms of gonorrhea in her partner should refrain from sexual intercourse and consult a doctor.
Myths about gonorrhea
Some people believe that gonorrhea can easily be contracted in a bath or pool, through bed linen or a towel used by an infected person. Statistics give such cases only one percent out of a hundred, while the rest are sexual contacts. The thing is that the causative agent of the infection is gonococcus, and these bacteria are extremely unviable in open air conditions. They literally die within minutes.
In the common people there is also a rumor that gonorrhea is not contagious during oral sex. This is not true. The infection is easily transmitted both through the mouth and through the rectum, affecting, respectively, the throat, mouth andanus. The course of the disease and its consequences will be as severe as when infected through the genitourinary system.
If the first myth is quite harmless, the second one can cause significant harm to he alth. This is especially true for adolescents, whom an infected person can, through this myth, convince of the safety of such contact.
Symptoms
Without diagnosis, treatment is also impossible. The first symptoms of gonorrhea in women, what are they?
Although there have been no “bursts” of incidence in recent years, doctors note sad statistics: more and more women are diagnosed with a chronic form of gonorrhea. Symptoms and treatment in this case are the same as in acute, so what is the difference between this form? The fact is that manifestations can either be absent at all, or expressed so insignificantly that the woman herself does not attach any importance to them. In this case, a person becomes a peddler, all his partners will be infected. In men, such forms of the disease are observed in twenty percent of cases, but in women - in fifty, therefore it is the representatives of the fair half who need to undergo a routine examination by a gynecologist every few months.
The first signs usually appear after an incubation period that can last from a few days to two weeks. The disease can be chronic or acute.
Signs of acute gonorrhea are: burning, pain in the genitals, purulent and mucous discharge, frequent and painful urination. These are the first signsgonorrhea in women. Treatment in this case can be prescribed even before the results of the tests are received, but most often, after all, you will have to wait.
Sometimes there may be a slight fever. Also, a woman can "calculate" gonococci by swelling of the gonads, their inflammation, and painful sensations in the labia. The lymph nodes are affected, they increase in size, soreness appears. The skin can become inflamed, eczema is often observed. If the patient has similar symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor. Self-medication can be bad!
Although the mucosa of the genital tract is most often affected by gonorrhea, doctors may also note infection of the mucous membrane of the rectum, oropharynx, and conjunctiva.
Gonorrheal stomatitis is accompanied by profuse salivation, sore throat, mouth sores.
Gonorrheal proctitis - discharge from the rectum and itching in the anus.
If left untreated, gonorrhea can become chronic. After a certain time, the disease can lead to irreversible changes in the genital organs, as a result of which the patient expects infertility. Gonococcus can disrupt vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, liver, and brain. The disease affects the bones, nervous system, skin.
Pelvioperitonitis and tubal rupture are common results in both acute and chronic gonorrhea in women.
Treatment
Symptoms identified, what to do next? Fewthe fact that the disease is quite common, so it is also "on hearing". To some people who are far from medicine, it seems terrible and even shameful, somewhere before syphilis and AIDS. However, this is all just speculation! The disease is quite common, so at the reception the doctor will not look at the patient with reproach. Moreover, according to professional ethics, the specialist will not ask provocative questions if you came with a partner.
Of course, one pill won't do the treatment of gonorrhea in women, but the disease can be overcome in just a few days if you see a doctor in time.
Why is this so important? The fact is that the causative agent of the disease is gonococcus. These are the bacteria that cause the infection, so the only option is to kill the infection, and only antibiotics can do that. It should be remembered that gonorrhea is not removed by any other drugs. At the same time, the treatment of gonorrhea in women at home is no different from therapy in a hospital. In the normal course of the disease, the doctor will simply prescribe all the necessary medications and let the patient go home.
The treatment regimen for gonorrhea in women is quite simple: before starting the course, the doctor must check the body's response to antibiotics (the presence of an allergy), and also, through tests, determine whether there are concomitant sexually transmitted diseases. Often such "fellow travelers" are trichomonas, chlamydial and mycoplasma infections. Then create an individualized medication plan.
Each antibiotic has its own characteristics in the form of side effects,contraindications and a number of bacteria on which it has the best effect, so it is better to leave the selection of the drug to specialists. Only in this case, the success of the treatment of gonorrhea in a woman is guaranteed. Reviews of girlfriends, neighbors, or just comments on the Internet should not be taken into account, because an antibiotic that coped well with the disease in one woman may turn out to be completely inappropriate for the second! In addition, bacteria are living organisms that constantly evolve and develop resistance to drugs, so until recently penicillins did an excellent job with this disease, but now they don’t. Even relying on reviews, the patient can choose a medicine that will only aggravate her condition.
Choice of drug
"Ciprofloxacin", "Ceftriaxone" and "Ofloxacin" - these antibiotics in 2018, doctors use to treat gonorrhea in women.
Penicillins and tetracyclines are practically useless in the treatment of modern strains of gonorrhea. At the moment, several antibiotics are used, while they are divided into "basic" and "reserve". The latter are used if the main group was ineffective or there are contraindications. Along with the main course, doctors use macrolides as a prevention of chlamydia.
In rare cases, doctors prescribe injections, but most often - antibiotics in tablets. Treatment of gonorrhea in women takes up to two weeks, depending on the "neglect" of the disease.
Ohself-treatment
In the fair sex, the disease often either does not manifest itself at all, or passes into an asymptomatic form later. Gonococci have several mechanisms by which resistance to antibiotic drugs is formed, and the generally accepted treatment regimen can lose relevance at almost any time. Therefore, it is in women that treatment with unauthorized antibiotics can be dangerous.
Especially often this happens due to neglect of the rules for taking drugs. For example, the patient chose the medicine on her own, did not follow the recommendations for taking it, finished the course early, as the symptoms disappeared, or incorrectly calculated the dosage, as a result, the gonococci in her body developed immunity. A new strain of the disease has formed, resistant to the antibiotic that the patient used in her treatment. As a result, all her subsequent sexual partners may be infected with this new strain, and stronger antibiotics will have to be used.
Consequences
As mentioned above, no irreversible changes will occur, but you should be aware of the consequences after the treatment of gonorrhea. A woman, due to taking antibiotics, may develop dysbacteriosis, since the drug, together with gonococci, destroys the intestinal microflora. Stomach pain, bloating, itching, various stool disorders (diarrhea, constipation) are often observed. With frequent courses of antibiotic therapy, these symptoms will become more pronounced from time to time. During treatment, you need to support your intestines,using special preparations. For example, doctors often prescribe probiotics: Bifidumbacterin, Narine, Linex, Bifiform.
Vaginal dysbacteriosis can also be expected during treatment. Its symptoms: itching in the vagina, frequent urination, change in the consistency, smell and color of discharge, pain in the lower abdomen, burning in the urethra.
If these symptoms occur or to prevent them, your doctor may prescribe vaginal probiotics (suppositories or tablets).
Traditional medicine
Treatment of gonorrhea in women in the old days was carried out by means of traditional medicine. The disease is described in the manuscripts of the most ancient doctors, and even in those ancient times, cases of supposedly complete cures are known. If for some reason the patient does not want to turn to modern and proven methods of treatment, she can resort to traditional medicine, but it should be remembered that sexual intercourse should be excluded not only during the course of treatment, but also for several weeks after it. Even if the patient is sure that the disease is gone, the best option would be to visit a gynecologist and take tests to make sure that gonorrhea has not turned into a chronic asymptomatic form.
Lavender
Lavender is believed to help treat gonorrhea in women. To do this, you need to brew a tablespoon of lavender in a glass of water, add honey and drink this infusion twice a day, one glass each. Women will benefit from douching with lavender oil: five are added per liter of waterdrops of oil.
Garlic
In fact, traditional medicine is trying to repeat what antibiotic drugs do - to overcome the infection. Garlic is a powerful tool in the fight against infection, and therefore it is believed that it will help in the treatment of gonorrhea in both women and men. You need to eat at least ten cloves of garlic a day, and drink it with sour milk. Masters of traditional medicine are sure that such a simple product will help to defeat even chronic gonorrhea, but you will have to use it for several months, and, of course, refrain from sexual intercourse all this time.
Women can use garlic tampons in their treatment, but here you need to be careful not to burn the vagina and irritate the mucous membranes. It is necessary to use a whole, uncut clove to exclude the release of garlic juice. A clove of garlic must be peeled, smeared with vegetable oil, wrapped with gauze or a bandage and inserted into the vagina. Such tampons are usually made at night, the remedy is used every other day for at least two weeks. Similar tampons can also be made from onions.
How to avoid infection?
As a rule, a regular sexual partner and the use of a condom significantly reduces the risk of contracting gonorrhea. Of particular importance are cases of transmission of the disease from mother to child. This occurs during childbirth, since during the period of gestation the fetus is reliably protected from gonococci by the placenta. A child, passing through the birth canal, receives a massive infection: infection of the eyes, genitourinary system and even respiratory organs occurs. This can result in serious consequences for the baby, including gonococcal sepsis and death.
Domestic infection (in the pool, bath, through household items) is extremely rare, but children, due to the characteristics of the child's body, can get a gonococcal infection if they use bath accessories immediately after infected adults. Most often, girls get the infection. For adults, this route of transmission is extremely rare. Gonococci quickly die when dried, in water, when exposed to various detergents (even ordinary soap), antiseptics. They also cannot tolerate high temperatures.
