Gonorrhea has a relatively short incubation period. You can usually get a reliable test result if you wait at least 2 weeks after a suspected exposure.
Gonorrhea is usually asymptomatic. If symptoms do occur, they may be mild or nonspecific. This means you may not realize that a sexually transmitted infection (STI) like gonorrhea causes them.
In some cases, you can take the antibiotic doxycycline as a postexposure prophylaxis (Doxy-PEP) to help reduce the chance of infection. Think of it as a “morning-after pill” for bacterial STIs.
Doxy-PEP is ailable by prescription only, and you need to take it within 72 hours for it to work. A typical dose is one 200-milligram (mg) pill.
»READ MORE:Learn more about sexually transmitted infections here