Gonorrhea: Fast Facts
Reviewed By:
Timothy Yarboro, M.D.
- Gonorrhea is often called "the clap," or GC.
- Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States (after chlamydia), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, there are other STDs that physicians are not required to report to the CDC that are also common, such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) and herpes.
- It can be transmitted during any kind of sexual contact: vaginal, oral or anal.
- In women, the gonorrhea bacteria frequently enter the body during vaginal intercourse. Ejaculation by a male partner is not necessary to spread gonorrhea.
- Gonorrhea can also be passed in other ways, including oral sex and touching an infected person's genitals and then touching your own eyes, but it is not spread by kissing on the lips.
- The bacterium that causes gonorrhea is called Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It thrives in moist areas of the body in men and women.
- Men are more likely than women to feel symptoms of gonorrhea, such as painful urination. About half of women infected do not experience symptoms, according to the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC).
- Women are more prone to complications of gonorrhea, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can lead to infertility.
- More than three-fourths of the gonorrhea cases reported to the U.S. government occur in sexually active people under age 30.
- People with gonorrhea also often have chlamydia, another sexually transmitted disease that may produce no symptoms.
- Following a 74 percent decline between 1975 and 1997, gonorrhea rates are on the rise again according to the CDC. There was a 5.5 percent increase from 2005 to 2006.
- Nearly 360,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported to the CDC in 2006, the last year for which figures are available. The condition often goes undiagnosed because many people experience no symptoms. The CDC estimates that an equal number of gonorrhea cases are not diagnosed or reported.
- Gonorrhea bacteria cannot easily adhere to membranes of the vagina in adult women, but can in girls and teenagers.
- Away from a moist surface, the gonorrhea bacteria can only live briefly. They cannot survive or be transmitted from inanimate objects or surfaces.
- The highest rates of gonorrhea infection are found in women age 15 to 19 and men age 20 to 24 according to the NWHRC.
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