Often silent, especially in women and in throat and rectal infection. Needs an injection and a follow-up test, not tablets.
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Gonorrhoea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection, and after chlamydia it is the commonest in the UK. Rates have risen sharply over the past decade.
We will be straightforward: this is one to take to a sexual health clinic, not to us. There are two reasons, and both are about you getting better rather than about us being cautious.
First, the treatment is an injection. A single dose of ceftriaxone into the muscle. Tablets are no longer recommended as first-line treatment in the UK because too much resistance has developed, and nobody can inject you over a video call.
Second, resistance is the real story here. Strains resistant to ceftriaxone — the last reliable option — have now been identified in the UK. That means the sample needs culturing so the organism's sensitivities are known, and it means everyone treated for gonorrhoea needs a follow-up test to confirm it has actually gone. Clinics do that as routine. It is the part that gets skipped everywhere else.
NHS sexual health clinics are free, confidential, do not need a GP referral, and are genuinely good at this. You can usually book yourself in directly.
The most important point: gonorrhoea is frequently silent. Around one in ten infections in men and up to half in women cause no symptoms at all, and throat and rectal infections are almost always symptomless. People pass it on without any idea they have it.
Almost always symptomless, which is exactly why testing has to cover the sites where sex actually happened rather than assuming a urine sample is enough. Occasionally rectal infection causes discharge, discomfort or pain on opening the bowels.
Red, painful, discharging eye, usually from touching the eye after contact. In a newborn baby, this is a medical emergency and can threaten sight.
It does not spread through toilet seats, towels, swimming pools, cutlery or hugging. This gets asked often and the answer is a firm no.
NAAT testing is reliable about two weeks after exposure. Testing sooner can miss it, so a negative test taken a few days after a risk should be repeated.
Anyone diagnosed with gonorrhoea should be tested for chlamydia, HIV and syphilis. Co-infection is common, and a full screen is standard practice at any clinic.
Everyone treated for gonorrhoea should have a follow-up test to confirm the infection has cleared, usually around two weeks after treatment.
This is not routine for most other infections, and it is specific to gonorrhoea because of resistance. If you were treated somewhere that did not arrange one, arrange it yourself.
Chlamydia, trichomonas, non-specific urethritis, Mycoplasma genitalium, thrush, bacterial vaginosis, or a urinary tract infection. They overlap enough that testing rather than guessing is the only sound approach.
First-line treatment in the UK is a single 1g injection of ceftriaxone into the muscle, and oral alternatives are reserved for specific situations because of resistance. We cannot give an injection over video, and prescribing tablets instead would be substandard treatment.
We also could not arrange the two things that make treatment safe: a culture to check what the organism is sensitive to, and a test of cure afterwards to prove it worked. Sexual health clinics do both as a matter of routine.
NHS sexual health clinics are free, confidential, need no referral, and see this every day. Search "sexual health clinic" with your area, or start on the NHS website. Many areas also post free self-sampling kits.
This is the part people dread, and it is worth saying plainly that it is a normal thing to have to do. Partner notification stops onward transmission and stops you being reinfected by someone you have not told.
Clinics can contact partners without naming you, and will help you work out who needs telling and over what period.
Having had gonorrhoea gives no protection against getting it again, and reinfection within a year is common — usually from an untreated partner.
We will not pretend a private consultation improves on this. For gonorrhoea specifically, the NHS sexual health service is the better clinical option as well as the cheaper one.
This page follows BASHH — the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV — national guideline on the management of gonorrhoea in adults, alongside NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries and UK Health Security Agency surveillance data.
UKHSA has reported cases of ceftriaxone-resistant and extensively drug-resistant gonorrhoea in the UK, most linked to travel to the Asia-Pacific region. This underpins the emphasis on culture, correct first-line therapy and universal test of cure.
Reviewed against BASHH, NICE CKS and UKHSA guidance current at the date shown above.
Because the recommended treatment is an injection, not tablets. Oral options are no longer first line in the UK because of resistance.
Prescribing tablets remotely would be worse treatment than you can get free at a clinic, so we will point you there instead.
For this infection, yes — and it is genuinely the better option. Free, confidential, no referral needed, and they test every site, culture the sample and arrange your follow-up test.
Nothing reaches your GP record without your agreement.
Very much so. Around half of infections in women and one in ten in men cause nothing at all.
Throat and rectal infections are almost always silent, which is why testing the right sites matters more than waiting for symptoms.
A repeat test about two weeks after treatment, to confirm the infection has actually gone.
Everyone treated for gonorrhoea should have one, because resistant strains mean treatment sometimes fails. This step is frequently skipped — do not let it be.
About two weeks for a reliable NAAT result.
Testing sooner can miss it, so a negative result a few days after a risk should be repeated at the two-week point.
Yes, and throat infection is common and almost always symptomless.
It is also thought to be where much of the antibiotic resistance develops, which is why throat swabs and condoms or dams for oral sex both matter more than people assume.
Untreated infection can, particularly in women through pelvic inflammatory disease. Scarring of the tubes raises the risk of infertility and ectopic pregnancy.
Treated promptly, it usually causes no lasting harm.
Yes, and clinics will do it anonymously for you if you would rather. Your name is not given.
It protects them and protects you — the commonest reason people get gonorrhoea twice in a year is an untreated partner.
No. It does not spread through toilet seats, towels, swimming pools, cutlery or casual contact.
It needs direct sexual contact, or transmission from mother to baby during birth.
Yes — there is no lasting immunity. Reinfection within a year is common.
It is usually from an untreated partner, which is the whole reason partner notification and the seven-day abstinence period exist.
August 30, 2026
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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