Hi there. I know exactly what you're going through. Very similar to my situation. For me its not really discharge since it never "dishcarges" on its own. Its only when I milk my penis. First thing in the morning it will often be whitish, looking like semen. Then, for the rest of the day it is typically clear and rather thick.
Doctor looked at my urine under a microscope and said it was "totally clear" and sent me on my way. I can back the next week, trying not to urinate before I went in. He looked at the "discharge" after milking it and said it was normal glandualr fluid and to not worry about it. I then (over the course of a few weeks) had 3 swabs done for chlamydia which were all negative, and one swab for gonorrhea which was also negative. One place looked at a urethral swab under the microscope and said there was no red blood cells, no nothing. Over this time I was given 2g of zithromax, doxycycline 100mg twice a day for a week, and 2g of metronidazole.
From what I know, that should have taken care of most reasons for urethritis. Yet the pattern persists of semen looking "discharge" upon first milking, then clear the rest of the day.
So I guess I'm trying to trust my negative STD testing. And even if I did have some kind of false negative that all the medication should have knocked it out. Andalso trying to take comfort in and believe that I didn't have anything in the first place. My last exposure was unprotected oral sex in the middle of february. Unprotected vaginal sex in early october.
Keep in touch if you find anything out. Or you too Doc if you have any further wisdom to impart. Best of luck.
Persistent/recurrent urethritis symptoms are common, and occur more often after nonchlamydial NGU than after chlamydia. They do not apparently ever lead to any dangerous outcome of any kind either in patients or their partners--no infertility, no tubal infections in women, no cancer, no nothing.
The usual approach is to start as you have, to treat both the patient and his partner. If symptoms then persist, longer courses of different antibiotics usually are tried, but only for the patient. I suggest you discuss with your provider; s/he likely will agree you should be treated with a tetracycline (e.g., doxycycline) for a week, maybe as long as 2-3 weeks.
It almost certainly is safe (for both of you) to resume sex with your wife. Sometimes condoms are recommended for the first few weeks, not to protect her from anything, but to increase confidence that if your symptoms persist, it isn't because you re-acquired an infection from her. But the need really isn't known.
The main thing is to not worry very much about all this. As to whether you are "overreacting", if your symptoms are subtle, perhaps the NP is right. Certainly many men with apparent chronic/recurrent urethritis don't actually have it, but have unimportant symptoms magified by anxiety. But I can't judge this as well as you or your provider can.
Good luck-- HHH, MD