Syphilis

Definition

Syphilis is a highly contagious bacterial infection caused by the bacterium treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. It can result is sores or ulcers that are normally relatively painless.

Symptoms

Signs & Symptoms of Syphilis

• Flu-like symptoms, headaches and high temperature
• Sores on the penis, vagina, or around the anus
• Sores around the mouth, lips, hands or bottom
• Light grey warts on the penis, vagina or around the anus
• A flat prickly looking rash on the hands and feet – sometimes spread to the body
• White patches in the mouth
• Swollen glands

Symptoms can stay silent and go undetected for years and if left untreated can develop into more complicated health risks.

Treatment

How Is Syphilis Treated?

Syphilis is easily treated with antibiotics and is likely to clear up and heal relatively quickly if caught soon enough. A single antibiotic injection can be used to treat syphilis and has a high rate of success. Otherwise, a course of oral antibiotics is needed to treat the infection.

Infection

How Do You Get Syphilis?

Syphilis is spread through sexual contact during vaginal, anal and oral sex, where the bacteria is transmitted from the mucus of the infected person to another sexual partner. This does not mean ejaculation, a person can transmit and contract chlamydia without ejaculation. 

Syphilis can spread through the use of shared sex toys, where one person carries the bacteria and the toys are shared during a sexual encounter.

Shared needles are also a common cause of contracting syphilis, where one person is infected and shares a needle with another person

Risks

Is Syphilis Serious?

Syphilis is less common than some STDs, but when caught, if left untreated syphilis can cause serious health concerns. Syphilis can be life-threatening if it is not treated properly. 

Serious complications of syphilis include:

• Pains in the bones and gradual joint damage
• Heart problems leading to heart failure
• And brain problems including fits and seizures

Diagnosis & Detection

How is Syphilis Detected?

Diagnosing syphilis needs to be carried out through a sexual health test either in person through a sexual healthcare practitioner, a walk-in lab testing center, or an at-home STD testing company.

A healthcare practitioner might carry out a visual examination of any rash or sores, followed by swab sampling for infected cells from those areas if the infection has progressed to that level.

Screening for syphilis requires a blood sample or swab of an infected area to be collected and tested in a lab. The best at-home STD tests for syphilis are finger prick samples, where you collect a small amount of blood in a vile and post that discretely to a private lab.

Other Types

Are There Other Types of Syphilis?

Congenital syphilis – If you’re pregnant and carrying the bacteria, you can pass the infection onto your unborn baby in the womb. 

Prevention

How Do You Prevent Syphilis?

You prevent syphilis like with any other STD, by being responsible and wearing protection during sex in the form of a condom. But also by being honest with your sexual partners about your sexual history and maintaining a regular testing program if you are sexually active.

Here are some advanced sexual infection tests from myLAB Box for those worried about less common STDs