Aa
Syphilis or stupidity?
Dr's
I will be brief and not drag on this question.
1.Had a one time oral encounter (receiver) from a male
2.Always dated women
3. Found bump about inch and a half under pubic hairline
4. It didnt hurt but I picked it and it bled and that was september 2011 late august
5. Been picking at it since it got bigger and now is always a hard scab.
Took 1000 MG of zithromax just in case I had Chlamydia and nothing happened to scab
Partner has no scabs on outer vagina
STD hotline in Chicago says syphilis can appear anywhere on the body--(I thought it was mostly mucus membranes and friction had to allow bacteria to enter not just touching it..STD hotline said that it didnt sound like syphilis.
I also feel guilty for letting male do that to me and I am freaking out because its more prominent in the MSM community.
No secondary symptoms (hotline says doesnt always appear).
They also said Oral sex and syphilis is the the "MAIN REASON" its on the rise--on here I read its pretty rare to catch that way period.
I will be brief and not drag on this question.
1.Had a one time oral encounter (receiver) from a male
2.Always dated women
3. Found bump about inch and a half under pubic hairline
4. It didnt hurt but I picked it and it bled and that was september 2011 late august
5. Been picking at it since it got bigger and now is always a hard scab.
Took 1000 MG of zithromax just in case I had Chlamydia and nothing happened to scab
Partner has no scabs on outer vagina
STD hotline in Chicago says syphilis can appear anywhere on the body--(I thought it was mostly mucus membranes and friction had to allow bacteria to enter not just touching it..STD hotline said that it didnt sound like syphilis.
I also feel guilty for letting male do that to me and I am freaking out because its more prominent in the MSM community.
No secondary symptoms (hotline says doesnt always appear).
They also said Oral sex and syphilis is the the "MAIN REASON" its on the rise--on here I read its pretty rare to catch that way period.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Symptoms are a highly inaccurate way of judging chlamydia in women. Most likely she has a UTI, as her doctor has diagnosed. She should follow up with her doctor, and I would recommend she take the recommended antibiotic(s) without waiting for a urine culture result.
I stand by my previous replies and doubt your partner has chlamydia. But if you feel you really must consider this possibility further, then you need to 'fess up to your partner and have her discuss chlamydia with her doctor. Feel free to do it -- but I truly don't believe it is necessary.
That's all I'll have to say.
I stand by my previous replies and doubt your partner has chlamydia. But if you feel you really must consider this possibility further, then you need to 'fess up to your partner and have her discuss chlamydia with her doctor. Feel free to do it -- but I truly don't believe it is necessary.
That's all I'll have to say.
I believe I may have infected my girlfriend. I know the logistic of taking antibiotics with a common STD like chlamydia. I took the 1000 MG on the 28th in the mid morning and slept unprotected with her on the 1st of February in the early morning. She now has lower back pain and urgency to urinate. The person I slept with was questionable and did get tested for HIV for me, but not anything else. My GF feels its a bladder infection because we had anal to vaginal sex as well and we laid around without showering all week on a vacation week from work...they were able to screen her on the spot for UTI or Bladder infection, but she was all clear. She insisted on a culture because she didnt want to start antibiotics without knowing. I do not know if its guilt or if I should rationalize this with science and understand that 4 days would have killed it and 7 days is a safety net--not a real body clock. The body doesnt say--today is day 7 cured...but these symptoms are making me question a lot. I almost told her I was unfaithful today. I apologize for taking up your time. I am overwhelmed and just want solid scientific data.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Sorry I misunderstood the exposure. But still no worry; chlamydia probably is cured (or at least non-transmissible) within a day or two of treatment.
Doctor I am sorry you mis-read I had the one off vaginal with a woman. I took zithromax after. 2 days later slept with my partner wearing a condom--then I waited about another day or 2 and we slept without one. Would chlamydia clear up as well? Would i be non infectious in that time frame?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Chlamydia is no more likely from the sexual encounter you had than syphilis is, because chlamydia is rarely if ever transmitted by oral sex. The chance you caught gonorrhea is a little higher, but still very low; and indeed, if you had been infected, the antibiotics would have cured it. Gonorrhea becomes non-transmissible within a few hours of the first dose of treatment.
The standard 7-day no-sex advice is mostly to assure symptoms have cleared up, so if symptoms return there wouldn't be much worry about a re-infection. But you had no symptoms. Almost certainly you were not infected with anything, and even if you were, you did not put your partner at risk.
That should wind up this thread. Please try to move beyond your seeming obsession with the sexual encounter. All evidence is that it had no sexual health consequences for you or your partner.
The standard 7-day no-sex advice is mostly to assure symptoms have cleared up, so if symptoms return there wouldn't be much worry about a re-infection. But you had no symptoms. Almost certainly you were not infected with anything, and even if you were, you did not put your partner at risk.
That should wind up this thread. Please try to move beyond your seeming obsession with the sexual encounter. All evidence is that it had no sexual health consequences for you or your partner.
Doctor after sleeping with this questionable woman for a very short few minutes..as I mentioned above I took 1000 miligrams of zithromax to rule out Chlamydia. I figured Ghonorreah would be more noticeable. I waited 4 days before I had sex with my femaie partner. A couple weeks later she has lower back pain..and what seems to be a full bladder. If I had Chlamydia or NGU was that enough time for the zithromax to kill it? I broke the 7 day no sex rule...but for practical purposes what are the chances?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
No, the skin lesion doesn't sound like syphilis. It has lasted too long (the chancre clears up without treatment, usually within 1-2 months); and chancres typically don't form scabs.
The odds of HIV are zero, for practical purposes, from either of the sexual exposures you describe.
Feel free to report the results of your test(s) for syphilis, HIV, or both. Until then it is pointless to speculate, so I won't have anything more to say.
Oh, and see a doctor or clinic about the scabbed lesion. Any sore lasting this long should be examined professionally.
The odds of HIV are zero, for practical purposes, from either of the sexual exposures you describe.
Feel free to report the results of your test(s) for syphilis, HIV, or both. Until then it is pointless to speculate, so I won't have anything more to say.
Oh, and see a doctor or clinic about the scabbed lesion. Any sore lasting this long should be examined professionally.
Also shortly before my new gf I had slept with a woman for 5 seconds unprotected. She went as a favor to me and my fear....got tested...said the last guy before me was 2 months....she brought home all kinds of condoms and stuff with labels from the clinic...but I doubt her. Thats for my shrink not you. But what are the odds? of HIV
Does the description sound like syphilis? I mean again I found this in late august early september--it is now February and I am still picking at this thing. The hotline person said regardless of picking at it or not it would have cleared up on its own by now. Do you agree? He felt it was probably an ingrown hair that got infected then I created scar tissue from picking at it. I have shaved the area in the past but not in over a year. I will get tested--but would like to go in expecting the best not worst. Your information sounds like I am in the clear. Honestly I have had my girlfriend put peroxide on it and it stings. Would a sore stay this long? It is now dried up and I dont let the scab just heal. WHich obviously I should. I wont ever experiment again. I dont need the aggravation.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your question.
I'm smiling at the title you chose, and this first comment is before I have even glanced at the question itself. Syphilis is a rare STD in most population groups and most geographic areas of the US and all industrialized countries. Stupidity is definitely far more common than syphilis!
OK, now I have read the rest. It is very unlikely you caught syphilis; almost certainly something else explains your pubic area sore. Anonymous gay men are among the population groups still at high risk, and as you learned independently, the disease is common in Chicago area men who have sex with men, and sexual exposure with an anonymous gay male partner is high risk for syphilis. However, I do not agree with whatever source you found that attributes rising syphilis in Chicago (or anywhere else) to oral sex among men. All available data suggest anal sex is the usual transmission route. Perhaps local public health experts have data to the contrary, but I'm skeptical.
As for the skin lesion you describe, it is true a new syphilis chancre can appear "anywhere on the body", but it has to be an exposed body part; the organism probably has to be "massaged" into the tissues for infection to take hold. In other words, it would be on your penis, not the pubic area. In addition to locaiton, the description itself is atypical for syphilis; and persistence after azithromycin also argues strongly against syphilis. Some strains are resistant to azithro, but in the US these strains are most common on the west coast; last I heard, they were not prevalent in Chicago (although this is something the local public health folks would know much better than I do).
So all things considered, even given the nature of your sexual contact, it is very unlikely you have syphilis. You don't mention blood testing for it; since you're worried, I would have expected you had one. If not, do it now. A negative result would prove you don't have it. Feel free to return with a follow-up comment and let me know the result.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
I'm smiling at the title you chose, and this first comment is before I have even glanced at the question itself. Syphilis is a rare STD in most population groups and most geographic areas of the US and all industrialized countries. Stupidity is definitely far more common than syphilis!
OK, now I have read the rest. It is very unlikely you caught syphilis; almost certainly something else explains your pubic area sore. Anonymous gay men are among the population groups still at high risk, and as you learned independently, the disease is common in Chicago area men who have sex with men, and sexual exposure with an anonymous gay male partner is high risk for syphilis. However, I do not agree with whatever source you found that attributes rising syphilis in Chicago (or anywhere else) to oral sex among men. All available data suggest anal sex is the usual transmission route. Perhaps local public health experts have data to the contrary, but I'm skeptical.
As for the skin lesion you describe, it is true a new syphilis chancre can appear "anywhere on the body", but it has to be an exposed body part; the organism probably has to be "massaged" into the tissues for infection to take hold. In other words, it would be on your penis, not the pubic area. In addition to locaiton, the description itself is atypical for syphilis; and persistence after azithromycin also argues strongly against syphilis. Some strains are resistant to azithro, but in the US these strains are most common on the west coast; last I heard, they were not prevalent in Chicago (although this is something the local public health folks would know much better than I do).
So all things considered, even given the nature of your sexual contact, it is very unlikely you have syphilis. You don't mention blood testing for it; since you're worried, I would have expected you had one. If not, do it now. A negative result would prove you don't have it. Feel free to return with a follow-up comment and let me know the result.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
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.
