Gonorrhea
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Also called as the ‘Clap’, Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhea spreads through sexual contact or exchange of bodily fluids.
What is Gonorrhea?
Also called as the ‘Clap’, Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhea spreads through sexual contact or exchange of bodily fluids. It can also be passed down from mother to infant during childbirth. Each year, in the U.S. there are approximately 700,000 new cases reported, according to the CDC.
What are the symptoms of Gonorrhea?
The bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae thrives in warm moist environments. That is why they love nesting in the warm regions of the inner reproductive tract like the cervix, urethra, uterus, fallopian tube, etc. The bacteria can also grow in the moth, throat or anus.
Symptoms usually take between 2 to 10 days to appear after exposure to infection. Sometimes symptoms may take upto one month to develop.
Symptoms in Women include:
- Greenish Yellow Vaginal discharge
- Abdominal or Pelvic pain
- Burning sensation while urinating
- Bleeding between periods
- Post coital spotting
- Vulvitis (swelling of the vulva)
- Swelling and/burning in throat (from oral sex)
Symptoms in Men include:
- Yellowish green or whitish discharge from the penis
- Burning sensation while urinating
- Painful swelling at the base of the testicles
- Swelling and burning in the throat (from oral sex)
How is Gonorrhea diagnosed?
To diagnose gonnarhea, a cervical swab (women) or urethral swab (in men) is sent to a lab to be analyzed. Some laboratories may even be able to detect the causative bacterium in a urine sample. You may have to wait several days for your test result to come back. You may also be given a throat or anal culture, to check if those areas are infected.
In either case, it is also advisable for your partner(s) to be tested as well, to prevent spreading of the infection.
What is the treatment for Gonorrhea?
The conventional treatment for Gonnarhea is antibiotics. These can often cause side effects, and also harm friendly bacteria.
Recent research shows that many strains of Neisseria may have built resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as quinolones, tetracycline, penicillin and sulfa drugs. Once a bacterium has developed resistance to a certain drug, it becomes difficult to treat it with that drug. A higher dose or a variant antibiotic may be prescribed. But chances are, if the bacteria has already developed resistance, it can build higher resistance as well.
Your doctor may advise you to retest for a swab culture after a preliminary round of antibiotic course to see if there was any resistance to the drug prescribed to you.
The best form of treatment is prevention. Always practice safe sex, especially with a new partner. Maintaining good hygiene in your genital area could help prevent bacterial colonies from settling in. If you have been diagnosed positive and are on an antibiotic course, wait at least 7 days until indulging in sexual intercourse again.
Is there a safe, natural way to treat Gonorrhea?
In the case of sexually transmitted diseases, it is advisable to discern the extent of infection, before deciding whether it can be treated naturally, with home remedies or with conventional medicine.
Before you onslaught your body with a slew of antibiotics and prescription drugs, get yourself tested. Depending on the profusion of bacterial count, let your doctor do the risk assessment for you. Ideally, it is better to avoid antibiotics, as these also kill healthy cells as well as good bacteria, which could weaken your immune system and cause other unnecessary complications.
With natural medicine and herbal remedies on the rise, there are plenty of more holistic, natural approaches to rid your body of the infection without causing much harm or damage.
Medicinal practices such as Ayurveda, Homeopathy, TCM, etc have been using herbs, botanical extracts, tinctures etc for centuries, to fight Chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The aim of this approach is to render the internal environment of your body inhospitable to the causative organisms, and at the same time boosting your immune strength.
VedHerbs three prong approach uses a combination of Ayurveda, homeopathy and modern nutraceuticals that work cumulatively to rid your body of the bacteria, boost your immunity and also strengthen and optimize your reproductive organs, to prevent re-occurrence.
