Gonorrhoea

[Jennyie]

Hello,

I’m at my wits end. For the last 6 weeks I have experienced an increase in vaginal discharge, towards the latter stage it changed colour slightly - to a pale green.

Two weeks previous to this, after sexual intercourse with my Husband he experienced some dryness, uncomfortable red skin at the end of his penis (at the time we put it down to vaginal dryness after my period) He went to the sexual health clinic, but by the time his appointment came round it had cleared up and he wasn’t tested for anything.

One week later I went to the clinic, was tested, immediate results diagnosed gonorrhoea. Was treated. He was then tested and treated the same day, assuming any sexual partners would have contracted it too.

We have a completely monogamus relationship.

He has received a text message 4 days after his test to say all his results are negative.

I’m back at the clinic in 3 weeks to test again.

Not sure whether it’s worth mentioning that the clinic also looked for the ‘threads’ on my coil, Dr couldn’t find the coil. This is the second time it’s got ‘lost’
He’s having the snip this time...

He had gonorrhoea 30 years ago and was treated, have asked whether it lies dormant for that long and answer is unlikely.

Anyway, so, I guess my simple question is - how else is gonorrhoea contracted apart from sexual intercourse/oral sex/vaginal birth?

Apart from my immediate test results being wrong I’m not coming up with anything.

We left the country the day after the tests/treatment so I can’t really go to my GP etc. I’m back at the clinic the day after we get back. Just having to sit it out. Tearing my hair out.

Thanks for reading until the end 🥴

Any advice/ideas?

Best Wishes
Jennyie

The member of staff needs retaining at looking at the slides. They owe you an apology because getting this result can tear a relationship apart if it's wrong.

No, they don't. They saw evidence of diplococcus bacteria, and reported as such. As I said in my first post, the formal diagnosis is made by a different test that takes longer to perform. OP should have been made aware of this. That said, the overwhelming majority of cases we see, with this microscopic evidence - and very importantly, this history - will be down to partners being unfaithful.

@creamcheesetriangle It is quite clear when you have a good look around at them if they are true intracellular diplococci or not. They must not have spent long enough looking at the sample and have wrongly reported this as positive. If they were there the PCR would have detected it even if the culture was negative which can happen. They need to apologise, reflect and have further training as they mustn't understand that they need to be intracellular. They should have told OP that this is a presumptive result if they were not sure and needs confirming with the lab.

What a load of gobshite

What a load of gobshite

snigger

Something similar happened to me.. I went to the clinic with smelly discharge etc and was immediately diagnosed with gonnareah and given the injection.. they visually diagnosed me by the discharge etc and took swabs for testing.

I was seeing someone at the time but had my suspicions about him. Obviously went mad at him and then my results actually came back negative. I never did find out why that was but I do suffer from chronic Bv and get a lot of discharge

@Sheld0r
For us, any extracellular diplococci material is reported also as we've found that (with a relevant history/exam) this has a very high correlation with positive PCR and we would treat presumptively at that point. Whoever gave OP the results needed to note the need for PCR confirmation, but I would not fault the lab here if that's what they reported.

@creamcheesetriangle that's fine as a clinical decision to make on the patient's clinical presentation if you decide to treat or not. As a stand alone test the microscopy should never be reported as positive if there are no intracellular GNDC there even if it fits your suspicions and you see some outside of the cell only. It's bad practice and something no microbiologist I know would ever do. There are other Neisseria species that could be naturally there which would be seen as extracellular and so give the false positive result (as would over de-colourised Streps on a badly stained sample). The person looking at the slide was in the wrong and OP is owed an apology due to the distress it has caused. They clearly didn't explain to her that treatment is being started as a precaution and should be reviewed.

Hello again. I’m the original poster, I deleted my login/account so I’m back to update at +1.

I tried to be as transparent as I possibly could, I have not and did not intentionally try to hide anything or back track. I came here on behalf of my husband too (after all the obvious conversations) Perhaps a +8 hour time difference, jet lag and trouble getting to sleep let me down in my delivery.

It wasn’t gonorrhoea. It wasn’t trichomoniasis either. I did not have a sexually transmitted infection. I ‘probably’ had BV or another kind of bacteria - some aren’t tested and come and go by themselves sometimes? Can any medical people clear that up for readers?

My husband’s initial symptoms are unexplained because he WASN’T tested. We are pursuing this and it’s being investigated as to why he wasn’t offered tests. His notes blatantly lie and say ‘patient refused treatment’. That begs the question, would the lie have been flagged up if I hadn’t gone in with symptoms the week after? It would never have been challenged?

The Doctor who diagnosed me explicitly said ‘it’s gonorrhoea on the slide’. At no point was it explained to me or my Husband that treatment was precautionary and lab results would be later. We both asked for any other reasons/explanations at the time and none were given. This Doctor had two opportunities to elaborate and did not.

All I knew was that I was back last week to check the antibiotics had worked.

The Doctor investigating has, of course, apologised profusely on behalf of the clinic and has reeled off words such as ‘training’, ‘improving inhouse practices’ and looking into the practices of the clinician and Doctor involved.

We have been given the PALS leaflet but not sure what is to gain by pursuing it?

I do feel we have been left forced to agree that it will be dealt with ‘in house’ with no plan to give us any further feedback. Just that if I or him show any other symptoms I’m
to go back.

Thanks again to those who offered helpful advice.

interesting OP.. very interesting....

If you're happy with that explanation, than that's all that matters.