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Syphilis titer
I was diagnosed with syphilis in November with rpr 1:32. I also had some generalized body weakness, low grade fever and some joint pain. I received 3 shots of penicillin one week apart and 2 months later my titers are 1:4 but I'm still having same symptoms like weakness, although not that often(maybe one or twice a day), no fever but have joint pain. My doctor is clueless why I'm still getting those symptoms since my titers show improvement. HIV negative but my herpes 1 and 2 titers positive which I was aware of. Can you suggest me what to do please. Thank you.
Thank you deksman2. I appreciate your input. I got tested for all the pathogens including HIV and those you mentioned. They're all negative. My blood work is within normal limits. I haven't checked my vitamins but will do that too. I need to find a good infectionist to help me to find the cause of my symptoms. Thanks again.
This website is for guidence, we can not diagosis you nor can we recommend treatment. If your Dr does not have the knowledge then find a STD Dr.
I'm no doctor and I do not wish to alarm you, but have you tried getting an examination to see if there might have been a potential neurosyphilis infection?
Although honesty, I'm not sure if the titers would drop by 4 fold if there was a neurosyphilis infection in place - information online can be limiting - but if your titers experienced over a 4 fold decrease in just 2 months time, then I would imagine the treatment was successful and the probability of neurosyphilis is low.
This occasional weakness and joint pain could be caused by something else though.
Have you got tested for other STD's such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Trichomoniasis, Ureaplasma and Mycoplasma?
Gonorrhea could be the source of an occasional weakness though, but there's nothing on joint pain.
On top of that, how are your diet and general vitamin levels in your body?
I had a vitamin test a day before testing positive for secondary Syphilis (my RPR was the same as yours - I did take the Doxycycline treatment though and it cleared up my symptoms, so I have a followup exam in about a month) and my levels were deficient for Zinc, Selenium, Vitamin C, E, and several B's.
Also, I would imagine my Vitamin D was also quite low since I'm not out in the sun a lot at all for most of the year.
I would suggest that you cover other bacterial STD's first and foremost, and if those come up clean, focus on other potential causes (such as getting bloodwork done - ask for vitamin levels to be done if possible).
Also, while antibiotics can obviously help a person get rid of a nasty bacteria... you do have to keep in mind that antibiotics do not discriminate against healthy gut bacteria and you'd need to replenish them with say probiotics (active good bacteria which can be gotten from yogurt - lactobacillus acidophilus is a good one to focus on).
These are just some of the things you could try, but you'd also need to do some more tests to ascertain the cause of your current problems.
Syphilis isn't the only thing that can cause that.
Although honesty, I'm not sure if the titers would drop by 4 fold if there was a neurosyphilis infection in place - information online can be limiting - but if your titers experienced over a 4 fold decrease in just 2 months time, then I would imagine the treatment was successful and the probability of neurosyphilis is low.
This occasional weakness and joint pain could be caused by something else though.
Have you got tested for other STD's such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Trichomoniasis, Ureaplasma and Mycoplasma?
Gonorrhea could be the source of an occasional weakness though, but there's nothing on joint pain.
On top of that, how are your diet and general vitamin levels in your body?
I had a vitamin test a day before testing positive for secondary Syphilis (my RPR was the same as yours - I did take the Doxycycline treatment though and it cleared up my symptoms, so I have a followup exam in about a month) and my levels were deficient for Zinc, Selenium, Vitamin C, E, and several B's.
Also, I would imagine my Vitamin D was also quite low since I'm not out in the sun a lot at all for most of the year.
I would suggest that you cover other bacterial STD's first and foremost, and if those come up clean, focus on other potential causes (such as getting bloodwork done - ask for vitamin levels to be done if possible).
Also, while antibiotics can obviously help a person get rid of a nasty bacteria... you do have to keep in mind that antibiotics do not discriminate against healthy gut bacteria and you'd need to replenish them with say probiotics (active good bacteria which can be gotten from yogurt - lactobacillus acidophilus is a good one to focus on).
These are just some of the things you could try, but you'd also need to do some more tests to ascertain the cause of your current problems.
Syphilis isn't the only thing that can cause that.
I'm not sure how this website works but can somebody else answer my questions?
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Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
