The urogenital tract is a complex environment composed of many different types of epithelial tissues and innate immune cells that sample the surrounding milieu. As a host-adapted organism, Neisseria gonorrhoeae can interact with only human forms of many molecules. Moreover, owing to environmental heterogeneities as well as unknown concentrations of oxygen and nutrients in this niche, substantial challenges exist for developing tissue culture and animal models. Advances in standardizing the cell culture techniques of primary tissue culture and transgenic mouse models may help to ameliorate these challenges.

Although the prevailing view is that infections in women are mainly asymptomatic whereas infections in men are not, many studies show that asymptomatic infections are prevalent in both sexes. The observations underlying the current dogma likely come from physiological and anatomical differences in the male and female urogenital tracts, making neutrophil influx in men much more noticeable and easier to diagnose than infections in women.