Gonorrhea Testing

Gonorrhea (sometimes known as “the clap”) is a common sexually transmitted bacterial infection that affects both men and women. While gonorrhea can be cured, it often does not cause symptoms, which can make identifying the infection extremely difficult without testing. Gonorrhea is very contagious and can affect the urethra, rectum, throat, or in rare cases, spread to joints.

Symptoms and Complications of Gonorrhea

Possible symptoms of gonorrhea can include painful urination, pus-like discharge from the penis, testicle pain, increased vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding outside of periods, painful sex, and pelvic pain. Not identifying and treating gonorrhea can further lead to significant complications, including infertility in men and women, spreading the infection to the joints, a heightened risk of HIV/AIDS, and chance to spread gonorrhea to a child during birth.

How Do We Test for Gonorrhea?

We use the nucleic-acid amplification test (NAAT) to determine if you have gonorrhea or not, which is the recommended method of identifying gonorrhea. This test only requires you to provide a small urine sample when you visit the lab of your choice. Not only are nucleic acid amplification tests extremely accurate, but they also allow testing for gonorrhea using urine samples and not the much more uncomfortable swabbing collection method.