Gonorrhoea in 60 seconds: What you need to know about STIs

One of the fastest spreading STIs at the moment, gonorrhoea is hard to spell but easy to catch

Here at JOE, we like to know what's happening with the cool kids, and what's trending on the Twitter machine when we Google our email into the Facebook. According to our internet research, people love cats, while Shia LeBoeouf and Miley Cyrus seem to be pretty hot topics. A lot of people are on about David Moyes's woes too, but the thing we've spotted trending that you definitely want to avoid is gonorrhoea. With the numbers of those affected by gonorrhoea on the increase in both men and women in Ireland, there has never been a better time to take control of your sexual health and make sure that you're practicing safe sex. Along with the Dublin AIDS Alliance, the Union of Students Ireland, SpunOut.ie, the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme and Think Contraception, we've got a few facts and figures so that you can get to grips with gonorrhoea in a simple and straight forward way. What is Gonorrhea? Gonorrhoea is a common Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and is increasing among young men and women. It's a bacterial infection that can be treated and cured with specific antibiotics. How do you get gonorrhoea? You can get Gonorrhoea from unprotected sex, including oral sex. Gonorrhoea can be found inside the penis, rectum, vagina/cervix, the throat and also the eyes, and there are a whole heap of ways that you can end up with catching this STI. Here are a few examples of the fun things you can do that could end up being not so fun when you introduce gonorrhoea. • Unprotected vaginal or anal sex, even if you don't ejaculate. • Unprotected oral sex, once again, even if there's no happy ending. • Unprotected 'rimming', and we're not talking about basketball. • Sharing sex toys or from fingers shared with each other that may have touched an infected area of the body. We were always taught to share our toys, but when it comes to the sexy kind, this is not a good idea. However, you can protect yourself and your partner by using condoms every time you have sex, including oral sex. How do you know if you've got gonorrhea? You can have Gonorrhoea and not have any signs or symptoms, which is why it's so important to get yourself tested. Tests are free and painless, and you can get them at any STI clinic. If not treated, gonorrhoea can cause serious and permanent health problems in both men and women. For more information on where you can get a test, check out yoursexualhealth.ie What are some of the symptoms? Symptoms include lovely things like yellowish/greenish-white discharge from the penis, vagina and/or anus, which is always a bad sign, your standard itching in the penis, vagina and/or anus and unpleasant burning or pain when urinating/peeing. It's not only in your private fun tingle areas that you can have symptoms though, so look out for soreness or redness in the throat, eye infections such as a discharge or ‘red eye’ or stomach pains for the ladies out there. You might not have any signs r symptoms at all, so that's important to remember, but as is a pretty good all round life tip, if you have pain or swelling of the testicles, you should probably go to a doctor. How can I protect myself from gonorrhea? You've already taken the first step in making sure that you're informed about the issue. It's also key to talk to your partner(s) about STI testing and using condoms for both anal and vaginal sex. Here are a few other tips: • Use condoms for oral sex. Try flavoured condoms! Some flavoured condoms should not be used for penetrative sex so always check the packet for details, and JOE's smoky bacon flavoured condoms have not yet hit the market. We hope to have them in early 2065. • Use dental dams, which is a thin sheet of latex that covers the vagina and/or anus. You should use them for oral-vaginal sex or oral-anal sex which may also be known by its ever-popular alternative name, rimming. • Sharing is caring, but not when it comes to your sex toys. Keep them to yourself. • Be careful when using fingers, particularly touching yourself after sexual activity, like scratching your eye or another area of your body. Just wash your hands like you were always taught to do. • Get tested regularly and treated if required – it’s free at public STI clinics. Where can I get more information? Check out yoursexualhealth.ie for plenty of information as well as a list of STI clinics where you can get screened for free.