“The clap” is a common slang term for gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It spreads through vaginal, oral, or anal sex and can infect the throat, rectum, urethra, cervix, and even the eyes. In 2024, over 543,000 cases were reported in the United States alone, making it one of the most common STIs in the country.
Why Is It Called “the Clap”?
The exact origin of the nickname is debated, but it has been used for centuries as informal shorthand for gonorrhea. You’ll see it on health websites, hear it in casual conversation, and find it in older medical slang. Regardless of the name, it refers to the same bacterial infection.
Symptoms in Men
When symptoms do appear, they typically show up around two weeks after infection, though they can sometimes take months. Men are more likely than women to notice something is off. The most common signs include a burning sensation when urinating, a white, yellow, or green discharge from the penis, and occasionally painful or swollen testicles.
Symptoms in Women
Most women with gonorrhea have no symptoms at all, which is one of the reasons it spreads so easily. When symptoms do develop, they can include painful or burning urination, increased vaginal discharge, and vaginal bleeding between periods. Because these overlap with other common conditions like urinary tract infections or yeast infections, gonorrhea in women often goes undiagnosed without routine screening.
Rectal and Throat Infections
Gonorrhea doesn’t only affect the genitals. Rectal infections can cause discharge, anal itching, soreness, bleeding, and painful bowel movements, or they can cause no symptoms at all. Throat infections from oral sex are also common and are usually silent, making them easy to miss without specific testing.
How It’s Diagnosed
Testing is straightforward. The most common method is a urine sample collected from the very first part of your urine stream (you’ll need to avoid urinating for about two hours beforehand for an accurate result). In some cases, a provider will use a swab to collect fluid from the vagina, cervix, urethra, throat, or rectum, depending on where the infection might be. Results typically come from a nucleic acid amplification test, which detects the bacteria’s genetic material and is highly accurate.
Because gonorrhea can infect multiple sites at once, your provider may test more than one area. If you’ve had oral or anal sex, mentioning that helps ensure the right sites get tested.
Treatment
Gonorrhea is curable with antibiotics. The standard treatment is a single injection, and most people are treated in one visit. Because gonorrhea and chlamydia frequently occur together, you may also be given a course of oral antibiotics to cover chlamydia if it hasn’t been ruled out. That oral course typically lasts seven days.
The critical thing is completing whatever treatment you’re given and avoiding sex until the infection clears. Retesting about three months after treatment is recommended to make sure you haven’t been reinfected.
Antibiotic Resistance Is a Growing Problem
Gonorrhea has developed resistance to nearly every antibiotic ever used against it. Between 2022 and 2024, resistance to the primary antibiotics used for treatment rose sharply. Resistance to one key drug jumped from 0.8% to 5%, and resistance to another went from 1.7% to 11%. Resistance to an older antibiotic class, ciprofloxacin, has reached 95%, making it essentially useless against the infection.
This matters because treatment options are narrowing. The World Health Organization tracks resistance patterns globally and is studying new antibiotics to stay ahead of resistant strains. For now, the current recommended treatment still works for the vast majority of cases, but this is a situation that public health officials are watching closely.
What Happens If It Goes Untreated
Left untreated, gonorrhea can cause serious complications. In women, the bacteria can travel upward into the uterus and fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease. This can permanently damage reproductive organs and lead to infertility, even when the initial infection caused no noticeable symptoms. In men, untreated gonorrhea can cause painful inflammation in the tubes connected to the testicles, which can also affect fertility in rare cases.
In both sexes, the bacteria can occasionally spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, causing joint pain, skin lesions, and other systemic problems. Gonorrhea also increases susceptibility to HIV if you’re exposed to it.
How to Reduce Your Risk
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, significantly reduce the risk of gonorrhea transmission. Studies show they’re effective against gonorrhea, chlamydia, and several other STIs when the infected area is covered. The breakage rate for condoms during sex is roughly 2 per 100, so they’re reliable when used properly. Natural membrane condoms (sometimes called lambskin) have microscopic pores and do not protect against STIs.
Internal condoms also offer protection, though the data is more limited. Reducing the number of sexual partners and getting screened regularly, particularly if you have new or multiple partners, are the most practical steps for catching infections early before they cause damage or spread further.