I have some general questions about those 3 infections.

1) for syphilis it says skin to skin contact w/o any context on various sites such as WebMD or even local health departments. So if someone has a syphilis chancre on their hand and you shake their hand and then touch your penis. Can it be transferred that way? 

1a) is it even possible to get a chancre on your hand say from fingering or oral sex?

2) for transmission to occur heterosexually for gonorrhea and chlamydia your penis opening has to be in touch with vaginal fluids from the woman? 

2a) What if it just rubs against it?

2B) the same as 1a basically: if you get the bacteria from gonorhea or chlamydia on your hand and then touch your penis or wipe your penis after urinating can it be passed that way?

3) as for me, I did notice a red bump on my penis head. I’ve been with my girlfriend for 5 years. I’ve been only with her. She’s only been with me. We use protection. Condoms and birth control. My DR thought it was yeast or something. But I did an RPR test 19 days after I noticed the “chancre.”  Is that conclusive?

4) the red bump doesn’t look anything like the Google images search I did for syphilis chancres on penises. 

(In those pics it looks like the solar storm on Jupiter.)

Round with a white ring around the outside and they look moist or wet in the middle. Unless that’s from a flash of the camera. Anyway, some sites say you may not know it you have a chancre. How would you not know? The chancres on those pictures are very noticeable. 

5) if you are in a monogamous relationship and both test negative should you ever get STD testing again?

Thank you for your time. 

1) That syphilis is among those STIs transmitted by skin-to-skin contact (along with herpes and HPV) does not mean ANY skin contact is risky. The advice refers only to skin-skin contact during sex. The term just distinguishes these three STIs from those transmitted primarily by exposure to genital fluids (like gonorrhea, chlamydia and HIV). The kind of touching you describe never transmits syphilis.

2) Yes, this is basically correct. 2A and 2B:  If the meatus (urethral opening) comes in such brief contact with vaginal fluid, the risk of gonorrhea would be low but not zero. The chance of chlamydia probalby is lower than gonorrhea, but not zero. HIV requires a lot more contact than this and I would judge these exposures as zero risk.

3) The large majority of genital skin problems are not STDs. (I have a book titled Genital Dermatology Atlas, with 300 pages of photos and brief discussions. All STDs are covered in just 15 of those 300 pages. And a red bump that didn't open into a sore almost certainly was not syphilis. However, 18 days is too soon for syphilis blood test to turn positive. 

4) As just implied, I agree your penile red bump was not a chancre. Beyond that, I cannot speculate about its actual cause.

5) Clearly with an ongoing monogamous relationship for 5 years, there is no reason to suspect syphilis anyway. I would not advise STD testing at all unless you have good reason to believe your partner has had sex with other persons, or if you have done so.

Your follow-up comment doesn't change the responses above.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD

1) If a person did notice a “chancre” how long would one wait to rule out syphilis with a blood RPR test? 

2) if there was NO “chancre”, when would an RPR test be conclusive? 

3) so in order to get Syphilis, it would have to be skin 2 skin during sex and not during stuff like sitting on a bed in a DRs office and then touching your penis? Or touching a wet doorknob and then touching your penis to use the bathroom? I just thought of those as examples. 

4) A little more background: I did have a genital herpes outbreak on my shaft about 7 weeks before the penis head “blemish” and remember showing my dr the herpes outbreak with my hands on my penis. It cleared up in 2 weeks. Then, I went back again a couple weeks later, to show him that blemish/bump on my penis head. He didn’t think the blemish was herpes). 

So…

Could syphilis Bacteria from the bed or or previous patient get on my hands and then to my penis? 

2) Six weeks after the last possible exposure. But it sounds very unlikely you were exposed -- unless your partner is at high risk for syphilis (sex worker? injection drug user? etc?).

3) Nobody ever gets syphilis from the events you describe. Only by sex with an infected partner.

4) This also sounds like an impossibility. However, a doctor's opinion that a penile skin bump "doesn't look like herpes" may be unreliable. Even the world's top herpes experts often have trouble recognizing atypical lesions. There may be a good chance your bump was a genital herpes recurrence. Whether or not that's the cause, your girlfriend must be informed of your herpes and you and she should consider steps to prevent transmitting it to her (unless there is evidence she is the source of your genital herpes).

1) So an RPR test would be conclusive in about 6 weeks from exposure. Correct?

2) An RPR test would be positive in about a weeks time after a chancre appears? Correct?

3) if someone would get secondary syphilis would they have a rash or sores all over their feet or just one?

I know it’s my third response and I thank you for your time! It’s a good service that’s provided. 

2) Also correct.

3) The rash of secondary syphilis usually is body-wide and would very rarely be on only one foot.

4) Biologically, there probably is always a secondary stage. However, some cases obviously cause no symptoms, since once in a while someone has syphilis that must have been present for a year or more but never had symptoms.

You're exactly right about nonprofessional sources, or those not professionally moderated. Always beware of health information run by or for people with the problem or worried about it, like Reddit, TikTok, etc. Anybody can say anything they want -- and personal testimony often is the least reliable of all health evidence. You are less likely to be mislead by professionally run or moderated sources.

As you anticipated, that concludes this thread. I hope the discussion has been helpful. Best wishes and stay safe.