Does antibiotic treatment treat gonorrhoea?

Gonorrhoea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection. A clinician chooses treatment after considering the infection site, local guidance, allergies, and any previous treatment. Symptoms may improve before the infection has fully cleared, so do not assume that feeling better means sexual contact is safe.

Avoid sex until your clinician says it is safe, and tell recent sexual partners that they may need testing and treatment. Testing may be advised again to check that treatment worked, especially when symptoms continue or the infection was found at a site where follow-up is needed.

Arrange a sexual-health or general-practice appointment for testing and a prescription. Take the medicine exactly as directed and do not share it or use leftover antibiotics. Ask about tests for other sexually transmitted infections, because gonorrhoea can occur alongside them.

Seek prompt medical care for pelvic or testicular pain, fever, a spreading rash, eye pain or discharge, or severe pain when passing urine. Urgent assessment is needed for severe abdominal pain, sudden testicular pain, or a painful red eye with reduced vision.

Ask which body sites need testing, when you can resume sex, whether partners need treatment, and whether a follow-up test is appropriate.