Are symptoms of syphillis obvious?

Question

Would you know if you have it?

Answer 1

Many people infected with syphilis do not have any symptoms for years, yet remain at risk for late complications if they are not treated. Although transmission appears to occur from persons with sores who are in the primary or secondary stage, many of these sores are unrecognized. Thus, most transmission is from persons who are unaware of their infection.

The primary stage of syphilis is usually marked by the appearance of a single sore (called a chancre), but there may be multiple sores. The time between infection with syphilis and the start of the first symptom can range from 10 to 90 days (average 21 days). The chancre is usually firm, round, small, and painless. It appears at the spot where syphilis entered the body. The chancre lasts 3 to 6 weeks, and it heals without treatment. However, if adequate treatment is not administered, the infection progresses to the secondary stage.

Check out this site for more information:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/STDFact-Syphilis.htm#symptoms

Answer 2

If you're at all concerned, go to your doc and get an STD test...if you have no cash/insurance, go to a free clinic. There are 3 main phases of syphillis, each phase gets a little more obvious. The primary phase is characterized by a chancre (a small sore) on or very near your genitals. This will appear anywhere from 1 week to a month after initial exposure. The tricky part is that it goes away, leading people to believe they're fine. After the first latent phase, some symptoms return with a manifestation like many other STDs, itching, soreness, pain with urination, which lasts anywhere from 2-6 weeks. It then alleviates, and the syphillis goes into a second latent phase, where it really starts to get nasty. Tertiary syphillis, which usually begins to manifest anywhere from 6 months to 2 years or more after the initial infection is pertty much lights out. Internal organs begin to get damaged, most notably the liver, kidneys, and pericardium of the heart. Then other problems affecting your senses begin to set in, such as blindness, deafness, loss of smell, and neurological complications. These being the worst of all. This is what eventually causes death, but before that one will have problems with understanding simple commands, controlling the eyes, and with walking...often causing people to believe late stage syphillis sufferers are drunk when walking down the road, but it is really just the disease wreaking havoc in the system (cerebellum).

Sorry if this sounded like a health report, but I've had it pounded into my head over the last year or two with several different classes. But most importantly, if you think you might have this, or any other STD, suffer through the brief pain to be sure you have it or not...at least for me, a urethral swab is much better than dying!

Answer 3

Primary syphilis:
During the initial incubation period, individuals are asymptomatic. The sore, called a chancre, is a firm, painless skin ulceration localized at the point of initial exposure to the bacterium, often on the penis, vagina or rectum. Local lymph node swelling can occur. The primary lesion may persist for 4 to 6 weeks and then heal spontaneously.

Secondary syphilis
This is a symmetrical reddish-pink non-itchy rash on the trunk and extremities. Other symptoms common at this stage include fever, sore throat, malaise, weight loss, headache, meningismus, and enlarged lymph nodes. Rare manifestations include an acute meningitis that occurs in about 2% of patients, hepatitis, renal disease, hypertrophic gastritis, patchy proctitis, ulcerative colitis, rectosigmoid mass, arthritis, periostitis, optic neuritis, iritis, and uveitis.

Because these symptons indicate many diseases, you should consult your doctor if you suspect you have Sypillis.

Answer 4

The development of syphilis occurs in four stages. The primary stage is the appearance of a painless chancre at the site of infection (often internal) about 10 days to 3 months after contact. There are no other symptoms, and the chancre disappears with or without treatment. The secondary stage usually begins 3 to 6 weeks after the chancre with a rash over all or part of the body. Active bacteria are present in the sores of the rash. Headache, fever, fatigue, sore throat, patchy hair loss, and enlarged lymph nodes may be present. The signs of the secondary stage will disappear with or without treatment, but may reappear over the next 1 to 2 years. Untreated syphilis then goes into a non-contagious latent period. Some people will have no more symptoms, but about one third will progress to tertiary syphilis, with widespread damage to the heart, brain, eyes, nervous system, bones, and joints. Late syphilis can result in mental illness, blindness, severe damage to the heart and aorta, and death. Neurosyphilis, infection of the nervous system, frequently occurs in the early stages in untreated patients. There may be no symptoms, mild headache, or severe consequences such as seizures and stroke. Its treatment and course are complicated by concomitant HIV infection.

I add a link from where you may find out more details.

http://www.engenderhealth.
org/wh/inf/dsyph.html#symptom

Hope this helps
Matador 89

Answer 5

I'm not sure about the symptoms, but my aunt didn't even know she had it, until her blood work showed it, she was shocked, and later found out it was passed on to her thru her mother during child-birth. Later in years, she did lose her eye-sight from it!

Answer 6

some people never show any symtoms to this disease. while other have sores on the genital area discharge inthe later stages this diease begins to eat away at your brain