Hi

I am not sure if I understand your question correctly but I will answer the question as if you asked does hand washing prevent gonorrhea. Let me know if I got the question wrong.

Gonorrhea can be in the urethra (pee tube), throat, vagina or rectum and can be passed when having oral, vaginal or rectal sex. It is common that people do not get symptoms when gonorrhea is in the throat, vagina and rectum.

Hand washing may be helpful in preventing gonorrhea in certain situations for example having sex with multiple people and a hand is used on one person’s genitals and then transferred to another persons. It may also help if the person is using their hand to masturbate and then use’s the same hand to sexually stimulate someone else.

Have a look at our “Know your chances” web page, it provides information on your chances of getting or passing an STI depending on how you are having sex.

It is also common that many STI do not show symptoms, given this we recommend that people go for STI testing. How often you get STI testing really depends on your personal situation. Have a look at our page on when to test.

Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.

Health Nurse

For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.