Urethritis
Urethritis is inflammation of the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body. It's usually caused by an infection.
The term non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) is used when the condition isn't caused by the sexually transmitted infection Gonorrhoea .
NGU is sometimes referred to as non-specific urethritis (NSU) when no cause can be found.
Urethritis is the most commoncondition diagnosed and treated among men in GUM clinics or sexual health clinics in the UK.
This topic covers:
Symptoms
When to seek medical advice
Diagnosis
Causes
Treatment
Prevention
Complications
Symptoms of NGUin men include:
In women, NGU rarelycauses any symptoms.
Read about the symptoms of NGU .
Visit your local genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic or sexual health clinicif you're experiencing symptoms ofNGU or you may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection (STI) .
You should still seek treatment if the symptoms of NGU disappear on their own, as there's arisk you could pass the infection on to someone else.
Find sexual health services .
Two tests can be used to diagnose NGU, and both may be carried out to ensure the diagnosis is correct.
The tests are:
You may also be offered tests for other STIs. It's up to you whether to have these or not, but a test for all infections is recommended. You can discuss this with healthcare professionals at the clinic if you wish.
Some clinics will be able to give youthe results on the same day. Others may need to send the samples to a laboratory for testing, in which case the test results may not be available for a week or two.
Healthcare professionals at the clinic will tell you when you'llget your test results, and they'll also arrange your treatment.
You may be given them before you get your test results, and symptoms should clear up after about two weeks.
It's important that past and current sexual partners are also treated to prevent any infection spreading to others.
After treatment has been completed and thesymptoms have disappeared, it should be safe to start having sex again.
You should return to the genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic or sexual health clinic if you stillhave symptoms two weeks afterstarting a course of antibiotics.
Serious complications are rare, but may include:
Women often have no symptoms of NGU. However, it can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) if it's caused by chlamydia and left untreated.
Repeated episodes of PID are associated with an increased risk of infertility .
Read about urethritis, non-gonococcal urethritis and non-specific urethritis. Urethritis is inflammation of the urethra and is usually caused by an infection.
Read about symptoms of non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU). NGU can cause different symptoms in men and women, and may even not cause any symptoms at all.
Read about the causes of non-gonococcal urethritis and non-specific urethritis (NSU).
Read about treating non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU). NGU is usually treated with a short course of antibiotics to kill the bacteria that caused the infection