Control of the spread of gonorrhoea requires considerable patient co-operation. A study of 100 consecutive patients with gonorrhoea attending a sexually transmitted diseases clinic was undertaken to determine whether improving a patient's understanding of their disease, its treatment, and the need for contact tracing increased the patient's willingness to attend for follow-up. The results indicated that although educational counselling improved the reattendance rate at follow-up it is debatable whether such a time-consuming and expensive method is justifiable economically.