Gonorrhea is one of the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infections in the world, and thousands of cases are diagnosed and reported every year.
If you experience some of the signs or symptoms on this list and you can tie it to having recent unprotected sex a few weeks before, you should get yourself screened for the condition.
While having to admit that you picked up an STD can be embarrassing to most people, that’s no reason to avoid a diagnosis. Untreated gonorrhea can be passed on to other people and the number of health effects that it can cause could sometimes prove to be fatal where the condition doesn’t get treated fast.
If you suspect that you might have gonorrhea, the first step is to get tested for the condition. From there, it’s easy to treat with the right course of antibiotics and symptoms will disappear once the course has been completed.
Here are 14 signs that you might have contracted gonorrhea.
1. An Unexplained Fever
The body develops a fever when the immune system responds to the presence of an intruding virus or infection in the body. It’s the body’s natural attempt to rid itself of the disease, but fever can also put far too much strain on the organs and heart – and prolonged fever can switch into a coma and death.
A fever can tell you that there’s an underlying issue in your body triggering it. Any signs of a prolonged fever that lasts for several hours or resists conventional treatment with paracetamol should mean that you see your doctor regardless of the other symptoms you may or may not experience with it.
An unexplained fever can be a potential sign of gonorrhea infection (especially if combined with other signs at the same time), but where it doesn’t point to an STD, it can also be indicative of many other generalized infections inside the body.
