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Negative NAAT Result - But Could I have late stage Gonorrhea

Approximately 5 months ago I had unprotected oral sex with a woman I don’t know. As I’m in a long term relationship I immediately felt anxiety and guilt. I noticed my foreskin and penis seemed slightly swollen. But very slight. Chalked it up to friction.

Last weekend I started getting symptoms of urethritis. No pus. Penis/prostate area is a constant, dull thud, but that dissipates after I urinate (urinating didnt hurt - it would feel better after I pee, though discomfort would soon return along with the urge to urinate).

I said my penis looks normal (no pus), but looking back I should have said that my foreskin seems swollen or covers more of my penis, and my testicles are a little uncomfortable.

Doc told me she thinks it’s UTI and doesn’t sound like Gonorrhea. Urine test at doc showed nothing abnormal. She also sent it off for routine culture and Gonorrhea/chlamydia screening. She gave me Cipro (2x a day for a week) and sent me off.

Tests came back negative for everything. What a relief. Symptom of urethra/penis discomfort seemed to subside after learning the good news.

But I started reading more and anxiety returned. I urinated about an hour before the catch (didn’t know), so I’m nervous about false negatives. Day 6 of pills. Balls still seem swollen, foreskin same. Still some pain, though less. Still urge to urinate and discomfort. I’m thinking the Cipro would have resolved those issues by now.

After reading about late stage issues, I’m concerned. It’s been 5 months. One issue I read about was joint pain. I had unexplained ankle pain a few months ago. Maybe 3-7 days. Not super painful, slight limp. I believe S.O. mentioned it was red. No pain now.

Last week, days before urethritis kicked in, I had unexplained pain in hip. Felt like I fell down (i was very drunk at Bach party and may have fallen down). Didn’t hurt when I move it or walked, but pain if I pressed against bone on my right side, or slept on it. No redness. It went away, but now I’m feeling mild muscle discomfort in back of hip. I’m not sure if this is legit pain or anxiety induced.

I was leaning towards “trust the test, it’s all in your head”.

Yesterday I got home and S.O. Complained of itchy rash all day. First her wrist (disappeared that day), also on trunk. Under breast, on her back, sides. Light pink, no vesicles or anything. Just slightly raised pink, itchy skin that seemed worse in creases of skin.

This morning she woke up with no rash or itchiness. Did I infect her with Gonorrhea??! Are we both experiencing symptoms throughout our bodies? I just recalled a few months ago she asked if lymph nodes in her neck felt swollen.

I’m going to a doc tomorrow. I’m going to explain the above and request a full std test.

Does anyone have insight to my situation?
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207091 tn?1337709493
COMMUNITY LEADER
Everything Dadz said is correct.

"I urinated about an hour before the catch (didn’t know)" - this is fine. You don't need to wait longer than an hour.

But these are telling:

"Tests came back negative for everything. What a relief. Symptom of urethra/penis discomfort seemed to subside after learning the good news."

"But I started reading more and anxiety returned."

"After I got my urine culture (negative) I honestly felt great. But a few hours later I realized that neg bacteria culture meant positive gonorrhea diagnosis was more likely. The pain then returned ten-fold."

"Once I got my negative Gon/Clam results I started to feel better"

"Sorry, re: that first followup sentence…
The symptoms HAD dissipated. Once I was told she had a random rash, things went haywire again."


Your symptoms return with anxiety or some thought or reading or something. It's psychological.

Also, "But a few hours later I realized that neg bacteria culture meant positive gonorrhea diagnosis was more likely." - that doesn't make sense.

As Dadz said, your risk for gonorrhea - or anything - from oral sex was incredibly low. The chances of you and your SO both not getting typical symptoms of gonorrhea are astronomically low. Women don't always get symptoms early, but men often do.

Guilt doesn't equal risk.

Testing now, while on Cipro, could result in false negatives, but if you want to get checked out by your doctor, do that.

Helpful - 1
4 Comments
Oh and while you're with your doctor, please talk to them about your anxiety. I say that with compassion.
Thanks. I’m normally extremely low stress and laid back to a fault. But the thought of hurting her kills me. So it’s a big burden and probably the most stressful few days I can remember.

Also, "But a few hours later I realized that neg bacteria culture meant positive gonorrhea diagnosis was more likely." - that doesn't make sense.

- what I meant here is if I got a negative culture for UTI or unusual bacteria, but still exhibited symptoms, I felt it likely that my VAAT results would come back positive.
And while I felt better yesterday, coming home to hear of her rash while I was in the middle of this 5 day crisis seemed like a bad omen.
"what I meant here is if I got a negative culture for UTI or unusual bacteria, but still exhibited symptoms, I felt it likely that my VAAT results would come back positive." - oh got it.

So let's look more closely at DGI, or disseminated gonorrhea, or systemic gonorrhea.

https://www.healthline.com/health/gonococcemia-disseminated

Symptoms that commonly occur with DGI include:

fever or chills
feeling ill or generally unwell (malaise)
pain in the joints
swelling of the joints
pain in the tendons of the wrists or heels
a skin rash with pink or red spots that become filled with pus

You don't have to have all of the symptoms at the same time, but again, it would be HIGHLY unusual - like to be written up in medical journals unusual - if both you and your SO had such atypical symptoms.

Method Granite Cleaner is in a spray bottle, correct? How did you get on your hands and then under your foreskin? Normally, if you react to a cleanser, it will be immediate or soon after. It will burn, and then within hours, you'd have signs of a rash or a burn on the skin. We have loads of people here who have used industrial strength cleaners on their genitals trying to disinfect after sexual encounters.

Have you heard of catastrophizing? It's a thought pattern, often present in anxiety, where you expect the worst to happen. We see it here a lot. Here, it's often in people who have gone outside a relationship and feel incredibly guilty, and sort of float along the lines of, "I did this horrible thing, and omg I'm so terrible, and now the worst is going to happen, and what is the worst? The worst is that I will have infected the person I love so much with something."

Then you spend loads of time on the internet looking up all the ways that could happen, and find horrific things.

Anxiety is a beast, and can present with physical symptoms, and I'm not minimizing anything - it's terrible. It gives you real symptoms. You are hyper-aware of every single twinge, pain, ache.

Your SO may have used a new soap or lotion or something, and that could be causing her rash. A million things could be causing it.

In any case, get checked by your doctor to rule out anything physical, and then work on forgiving yourself.
Avatar universal
Hey, hope I can help. Oral sex is low risk for all STI and absolutely zero for some. So you would be unlucky if the bat to get any STI from a single exposure. That said it happens.

You are at risk for NGU, Ghon, Clym, Syph and Herpes.

Herpes would have caused obvious painful sores by now or will remain asymptomatic as it is in most of the population.

NGU I would have imagine would have been picked up by the urine test the doctor did. An increase in WBC would point towards this. Further more your symptoms don’t match well with NGU or any other STI for that matter. I would expect discharge and painful urination if symptoms was to appear. Atypical presentation and a negative urine test looking for white blood cells is in its self reassuring.

As for Clym and Ghon the later you seem to be more worried about. Your tests are accurate even if you did mid stream it taken after 1 maybe 2 weeks believe in it. They are very sensitive and only need a tiny amount of bacteria in order to turn positive. The only thing I do question that I can’t tell from your response is when you was taking antibiotics and when you tested. They could have skewed your results slightly however I still don’t think any of your symptoms are in relation to an STI.

Syph for want of a detailed response would probably have gave you a open sore at start of infection circa three week. That would have cleared and then progressed to a rash. But please don’t worry the rash is persistent for weeks so to clear in a day it’s safe to assume the rash is not related.

The join pain - I assume you have read about reactive arthritis. I’m no expert on this but seen as I’m 99% sure you are STI free I can assure you if you have reactive arthritis it’s not related to a STI. And I’d imagine it’s more painful and more of a effect on your life. Furthermore even in people prone and frequent infected with an STI reactive arthritis is very very rare. Scientists have looked at this and it’s a specific reaction to a person with a specific gene. The chances of you and your wife having the same gene and therefore both getting reactive arthritis is infinitelysmall.

I think I have addressed your concerns. Of course the correct course of action is talking to your doctor to work through this rather than listening to strangers online. But in the mean time I hope I have gave you some comfort.

The fact your symptoms left when you got negative tests is a massive sign that this is anxiety based an STI would NOT act this way - they don’t care how you feeling and will hurt you in good or bad moods.

Atypical presentation - negative tests - symptoms coming and going all leads to anxiety.

People make mistakes you need to put this behind you. You deserve it and your partner deserves it.

Helpful - 1
4 Comments
Oh also - and I think this is the kicker I noticed your symptoms started 5 month after potential exposure absolutely no way would an STI take this long to make itself know. It’s simply impossible you would either
A) remain asymptomatic and until tested would remain that way.
B) become symptomatic within 3 weeks depending on the cause - I would say a month perhaps but certainly not 5.
Thanks, this makes me feel better. Hopefully you’re right.

I did read up on the mind, and it’s powers on making you feel certain symptoms. Chronic pelvic pain seems (saw a website posted in other threads) seems to make some sense as I’m tensing up at the base of my pelvis and if I focus on relaxing that does help the symptoms.

My testicles are a tad sore (not painful to touch or anything) and full but maybe that’s stress related.

One thing I forgot to mention. During the encounter I had a little bit of friction on my penis where pathogens could potentially enter the blood stream, but I don’t know.
Also, a few weeks ago I got some chemical on my under my foreskin. “Method Granite Cleaner”. Stupid, had some on my hand and I rubbed my penis. It says it’s non toxic but I looked it up and there’s some nasty ingredients - carcinogens, skin irritants etc. One ingredient is more easily absorbed through moist skin. It didn’t hurt at the time. I washed it off but not as much as I may have knowing the ingredients.

I know chemicals can cause urethritis but usually clears up after discontinued use. This was weeks ago.

But maybe it’s cleared up and the mental aspect is keeping the sympoms of pain. It’s a little pink under the foreskin still. Skin looks more tender and wet than normal.
absolutely this is anxiety based - Not that its in your head pain is real but caused by anxiety. you wont hurt your partner. put it behind you and relax. your in the clear. love you partner, love yourself and LIVE.
Avatar universal
And to be clear, all of my pain/discomfort/urination urges have dissipated, but aren’t gone (3 pills left).

After I got my urine culture (negative) I honestly felt great. But a few hours later I realized that neg bacteria culture meant positive gonorrhea diagnosis was more likely. The pain then returned ten-fold.

Once I got my negative Gon/Clam results I started to feel better

So, I don’t know if my mind is just making symptoms worse. Likewise, I don’t know the previous improvements in pain were because it’s gone away, or because Cipro lessened the infection somewhat.

S.O. says she feels fine.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Sorry, re: that first followup sentence…
The symptoms HAD dissipated. Once I was told she had a random rash, things went haywire again.
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