[Question #9426] Syphilis scare
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32 months ago
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Hello Doctors,
I am a 41 year old male in the southwest U.S. One week ago, I had a random encounter with another man. We performed unprotected oral on each other and deeply kissed.
Today I noticed what seems to be a swollen taste bud on the side of my tongue and I’m concerned about syphilis. I have no fever nor do I have any swollen lymph nodes. I have no other symptoms of anything else and I know my HIV odds are low.
1. What are the odds I was infected with syphilis from this single episode?
2. If the odds are high, would it be too soon to seek testing/treatment? I don’t want to infect my wife.
Any insight is appreciated.
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32 months ago
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Addendum: there were no visible sores on his penis nor mouth.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
32 months ago
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Welcome to our Forum and thanks for your questions. While syphilis man be transmitted through kissing or oral sex, this is relatively uncommon. It is also early for a syphilis lesion to appear- it typically takes about 3 weeks for lesions to appear. Oral syphilis is uncommon and the swollen taste bud you describe any be normal but only noticed now because you were looking for it. The disease is typically manifest by a painless open sore in its early stages. Even in the unlikely circumstance that your partner had syphilis, most exposures do not result in infection.
If you want to be 100% sure you didn’t acquire syphilis, you could get a blood test. I am confident however that if you do, it will be negative, proving this is not syphilis.
I hope this information is helpful. If any part of my response is unclear, please use your up to two follow ups for clarification. EWH
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32 months ago
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Thank you. Your insight and the odds are reassuring.
I’m at approximately the 3 week mark of the incident and I still have no signs of any STD. Would now be too early to test?
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
32 months ago
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On average, Syphilis lesions appear about three weeks following an exposure. In our experience results at 30 days are highly predictive and at 6 to 8 weeks are entirely conclusive. Three weeks is a bit on the early side although results which are negative at this time would be reassuring. Hope this helps. EWH---