Gonorrhea

Why was I treated before the results came back?

Had symptoms, was given the injection on the spot, results confirmed it two days later. Seemed backwards at the time.

evening_ferry 5 months ago

NoteMember experience, not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections and only a test can tell them apart.

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low_ceiling 5 months ago

Standard practice when symptoms strongly suggest it. The reasoning is that the cost of treating someone who turns out negative is low, and the cost of two days of untreated infection plus a person who never comes back for results is high.

plain_paper 5 months ago

Clinics know that a meaningful proportion of people never return for results, and the treat on suspicion approach exists because of that reality rather than because of certainty about the diagnosis.

oak_table 5 months ago

The important part is that they still ran the test. Treating without testing would leave nobody knowing what was actually there, which matters for resistance surveillance and for partner notification.

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