Embarrassing Illnesses

The symptoms of syphilis are the same for men and women and can be difficult to recognise. They are often mild which means you can pass on the infection without knowing you've got it.

The symptoms can develop in three stages, which are known as primary syphilis (first stage), secondary syphilis (second stage) and tertiary syphilis (third or latent stage).

Primary syphilis

The initial symptoms of syphilis can appear any time from 10 days to three months after you have been exposed to the condition.

The most common symptom is the appearance of a small, painless sore or chancre. The sore will appear on the part of your body where the infection was transmitted, typically your genitals, rectum, tongue or lips. Most people only have one chancre, but some people have more.

You may also experience swelling in your lymph glands (small bean-shaped organs that are found throughout the body, such as in the neck, armpit or the groin.)

As a chancre is painless and may be overlooked, the condition can be transmitted without realising there is an infection.

The chancre will then disappear within three to six weeks and if the condition is not treated, syphilis will move into its second stage.

Secondary syphilis

The symptoms of secondary syphilis will begin 3-6 weeks after the disappearance of the chancre.

Common symptoms include:

• a non-itchy skin rash appearing in a few areas of the body, normally the palms of your hands, or soles of your feet,
• tiredness,
• headaches, and
• swollen lymph glands.

Less common symptoms include:

• fever,
• weight loss,
• hair loss,
• joint pains, and
• sores inside the mouth or on the genitals.

Symptoms may disappear within a few weeks, or come and go over a period of months.

Syphilis will then move into its latent phase, where you will probably experience no symptoms. Latent syphilis can be transmitted during the first year of this stage of the condition through close contact with any open sores - though the condition itself will not cause any sores to develop during this phase.

Without treatment there is a risk that latent syphilis will move on to the most dangerous stage - tertiary syphilis.

Tertiary syphilis

The symptoms of tertiary syphilis can begin years, or even decades, after initial exposure to infection.

The symptoms of tertiary syphilis will depend on what part of the body the infection spreads to, but some potentially serious symptoms include:

• stroke,
• loss of coordination,
• numbness,
• paralysis,
• blindness,
• deafness, and
• heart disease.