Dear Dog-ter:
What's up with all this talk about gonorrhea lately? I hear there's a lot of it going around. Is that true? What does it look like and how do I know if I have it?
Nervous Nelly

In 2001 there were 166 cases among Denver gay/bi men. In 2002 there were 289! That's an increase of 74% in one year! Yikes!

So what's going on here? Well, lots of anal sex without condoms mostly. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a brilliant handsome doctor like myself to figure that one out. Some guys are fucking like bunnies and not wrapping their carrots! And it only takes one bad carrot to turn the whole bunch bad!

It's easy to have gonorrhea and not know it. If gonorrhea is up your butt (which is very common in guys who butt fuck without condoms) it may be painless. Or the discharge may be hard to notice. It it's in your throat, you may have redness or pain when you swallow. So you might think you just have a sore throat or strep. And about 10% of guys never even develop symptoms- anywhere! See how easy it can be to spread gonorrhea?

What is gonorrhea? It's a bacteria that can infect your mouth, throat, urethra (pee tube) and butt. Symptoms appear 2-10 days after infection:

• Burning when you pee
• Green/yellow discharge from your dick or ass. Pre-cum looks clear. Gonorrhea doesn't.
• Blood or mucus in your feces
• Painful bowel movements or rectal pain
  
  

Having gonorrhea also makes it easier to get and give HIV. So for these reasons, every gay/bi man who has unprotected sex should get a STD test every 3-6 months. Make it a regular part of your health routine.

Gonorrhea is easy to treat. A simple swab or urine test, a single dose of antibiotics and you're done. You can go to your regular doctor or to the STD clinic. Once you've been treated, you should stay away from sex for at least a week and tell your recent sex partners to get checked too. So, fuck bunnies, please use those condoms! And if you haven't been to the STD clinic in a while-- best to hop on down and get checked out.

Until next time, Dick