Gonorrhea in males is cured with a single antibiotic injection. The standard treatment takes one clinic visit, and symptoms typically start improving within a few days. There is no effective home remedy or over-the-counter option for gonorrhea; it requires a prescription antibiotic.
How Gonorrhea Is Treated
The CDC-recommended cure for uncomplicated gonorrhea is a single injection of ceftriaxone, a powerful antibiotic given as a shot in the muscle, usually in the upper arm or buttock. That one dose is the entire treatment for the gonorrhea itself. You don’t need to take pills afterward or return for additional injections unless your provider identifies a reason to.
There’s one important catch: gonorrhea and chlamydia frequently occur together, and chlamydia doesn’t always cause obvious symptoms. If your chlamydia test results aren’t back yet, or if you weren’t tested for it, your provider will also prescribe a week-long course of an oral antibiotic (typically taken twice daily for seven days) to cover a possible chlamydia co-infection. So in practice, many men leave the clinic with both an injection and a prescription for pills.
If you have a severe allergy to the antibiotic family that includes ceftriaxone, your provider can use an alternative regimen. These backup options exist but are less straightforward, so let your provider know about any drug allergies before treatment starts.
What to Expect After Treatment
The injection itself takes seconds and may cause brief soreness at the injection site. Most men notice their symptoms, particularly discharge and burning during urination, start to fade within one to two days. Full symptom resolution usually happens within a week.
You should avoid all sexual contact for at least seven days after treatment. If you were also treated for chlamydia, wait until you’ve finished the full course of oral antibiotics and at least seven days have passed. Having sex too soon risks passing the infection to a partner before the antibiotics have fully cleared it from your body.
Getting Tested and Diagnosed
Diagnosis is fast and straightforward. The preferred test is a urine sample analyzed using a method called nucleic acid amplification testing, which detects the bacteria’s genetic material. This test is highly accurate, with sensitivity between 90 and 100 percent and specificity above 97 percent. In most cases, you simply provide a urine sample at the clinic. If you’ve had oral or anal exposure, your provider may also swab the throat or rectum, since gonorrhea can infect those sites without causing noticeable symptoms.
Results typically come back within one to three days, though many clinics will treat you the same day based on your symptoms and exposure history rather than waiting for lab confirmation. This is common practice because delaying treatment increases the risk of complications and further transmission.
Symptoms in Males
The most recognizable symptoms are a thick, yellowish or greenish discharge from the penis and a burning sensation when urinating. These usually appear two to five days after exposure, though some men don’t develop symptoms for up to two weeks. Swollen or tender testicles can also occur, though this is less common with early infection.
Some men carry gonorrhea with no symptoms at all, particularly with throat or rectal infections. This is one reason testing matters even without obvious signs, especially after unprotected sex with a new or untested partner.
Why Your Partners Need Treatment Too
Curing your own infection doesn’t protect you from getting it again if your sexual partner is still infected. Reinfection from an untreated partner is one of the most common reasons people end up back in the clinic with the same diagnosis weeks later.
Anyone you’ve had sexual contact with in the past 60 days should be notified and treated. If a partner can’t or won’t go to a clinic, many states allow something called expedited partner therapy, where your provider writes a prescription for your partner without requiring them to come in for a separate visit. Evidence shows this approach reduces reinfection rates compared to simply asking partners to seek care on their own.
What Happens If Gonorrhea Goes Untreated
Left alone, gonorrhea doesn’t resolve on its own. The bacteria continue to multiply and can spread deeper into the reproductive tract. The most common complication in men is epididymitis, an inflammation of the coiled tube behind each testicle that stores and carries sperm. This causes fever, scrotal pain, and swelling, and in severe or repeated cases, it can lead to fertility problems.
In rare cases, the infection enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body. This is called disseminated gonococcal infection and can cause joint pain, skin lesions, and, if untreated further, damage to heart valves. This is uncommon but serious, and it underscores why prompt treatment matters even when symptoms feel manageable.
Retesting After Treatment
Most men treated with the standard injection do not need a follow-up “test of cure” to confirm the infection is gone, as long as symptoms resolve and the recommended antibiotic was used. However, the CDC recommends retesting about three months after treatment to check for reinfection, since reinfection rates are high, particularly if partners weren’t treated simultaneously.
If your symptoms persist or return after treatment, go back to your provider. Persistent symptoms could mean the bacteria were resistant to the antibiotic used, that you were reinfected by an untreated partner, or that a different infection is causing similar symptoms. Your provider can run another test and adjust your treatment accordingly.