Dr. I am posting my questions that I asked in another forum, and you told me to post here to get answers. I really hope you can answer my questions.
I am a heterosexual male. I had condom protected vaginal sex on a few occasions in Europe (Germany and Austria). On one occasion I received unprotected fellatio, but vaginal sex was always protected..
As you may recall I had a rash (resembling psoriasis) on my knees a few weeks back. I have had tests to rule out HIV, but I am now concerned about syphilis. I did, at one point, have a minor bump on my scrotum. It is hard for me to remember what it looked like exactly, but I treated it with a steroid/anti-fungal cream and it went away rather quickly.
I had blood drawn for the syphilis test, but it's taking a long time to get the results back. I have a few questions about this situation:
1. Is it possible to contract syphilis through condom protected sex? (I know you say it is rare in North America, but I had sex in Europe)
2. Is it common to contract syphilis, without contracting HIV when having condom protected sex? Does syphilis penetrate intact skin (such as the scrotum)? Would this increase the risk of HIV transmission? Do you see many patients who contract syphilis, but not HIV?
3. Does contracting syphilis (and having it in its early stages) affect the reliability of an HIV test? I had another negative rapid antibody test at 75 days (almost 11 weeks). Would this test still be considered conclusive if syphilis were present?
4. Does the syphilis rash ever present like psoriasis and could it be confined to the knees/upper shin?
5. Would the recurrent ulcers on the roof of my mouth indicate anything about syphilis?
6. Would ultra-high levels of stress or applying topical steroids to my rashes for weeks affect the window period of an HIV test?
Please answer as many of my questions as you can, I am having terrible anxiety about this situation, and I would really appreciate your response.