Dear Doctor,

Thank you very much for the sexual health education you provide. Your work has helped me understand sexual risk more rationally.

I would greatly appreciate your opinion about a possible risk of syphilis transmission in my recent situation.

A few days ago, I had protected vaginal intercourse with a sex worker in Germany at a fixed-location massage establishment. A condom was used correctly throughout the entire intercourse and did not break or slip. The intercourse lasted only a few minutes.

At that time, I had a small healing folliculitis lesion (a dry scab) on the lower abdomen / pubic area, approximately 5 cm above the base of the penis. The lesion was already dry, not bleeding, not painful, and without any visible open wound.

After the encounter, I showered normally and did not notice any pain or signs suggesting that the lesion had been re-injured.

My main concern is whether syphilis transmission is realistically possible if there was  skin contact between this a small healing folliculitis lesion and a partner’s lesion such as a chancre, while vaginal intercourse itself was fully protected by a condom.

In this situation, would you recommend any testing, or is routine observation sufficient?

Thank you very much for your time.

Kind regards,