Thank you all for offering this service. I am a male and have always worried that I contracted syphilis about 15 years ago after a vaginal intercourse sexual experience. There was a lot of grinding and possible penetration before I put the condom on. A few weeks after the sexual experience, I found a bump on the shaft of my penis. I kept squeezing the bump until it popped like a pimple and then went away. I did not see my doctor at the time because the doctor did not seem very open about questions related to sex. I also have occasionally gotten skins rashes and have wondered if those could possibly be related to a syphilis infection. I recently asked my doctor to test me for syphilis. I told the doctor that the possible exposure would have been a while ago. The doctor ordered an RPR test. The result was non-reactive. My worry is that I could have contracted syphilis years ago and now the infection is not showing up on the RPR test. I've read online that late-stage syphilis does not always how up on an RPR test. Could I have syphilis despite the non-reactive RPR test result? Should I get a different test?    

Welcome to our Forum. Thanks for your questions and your implied confidence in the information we provide.  We receive many questions regarding the possibility of having acquired syphilis from clients.  In once sense, these questions are certainly reasonable as syphilis is a highly variable infection which can be missed by health care providers if they are not considering the possibility.  Having said that however, I am confident that you did not acquire syphilis from the exposure you describe.  Transmission of syphilis in the absence of obvious penetrative sexual contact is very unusual.  Indeed, even with penetrative sex, the majority of exposures to sexual partners with syphilis do not result in transmission.  Further, RPR tests for syphilis remain positive long after infection and for them to become non-reactive in the absence of treatment is most unusual.  If you wish to be 100% sure that you did not acquire syphilis from the exposure you describe, you could ask your health care provider to perform a treponemal test for syphilis (there are several different types- their names include the TPPA test or the syphilis EIA test.  These tests typically remain reactive for life after acquisition of syphilis, even following treatment.  (by the way, treponemal tests are used to test donated blood being prepared for transfusion- if you have donated blood since the appearance of the lesion you describe, you have had a treponemal test and can be confident you did not have syphilis)---

Thanks for responding to my questions doctor. Does that pustule sound like it could be herpes? The bump on the shaft of my penis was raised skin. It has been a while but I think the bump was red and a little irritated. The redness and irritation could have been because I was squeezing it though. The bump didn't have like that clear dome where you could see the puss underneath. What came out when I popped the bump was not the white stuff that sometimes comes out of pimples. It was liquid. The liquid was sort of clear. Maybe a little brown or reddish like puss. The bump never scabbed over after I popped it. It just went away. 

i find myself wondering why you are worrying about something that happened 15 years ago.  Is something new going on?---