The symptoms of syphilis occur in several stages. We will divide these into the stages as follows, the first stage, second stage, latent stage and the tertiary stage.
First Stage:
During the first stage, smooth, red, painless sores called chancres appear. People usually get chancres near the genitals, but they can form anywhere on the body. Women may not know they have a chancre if it is inside the vagina. Chancres on the penis can usually be seen. These painless sores may appear 10 days to 3 months after contact with an infected person. The sores last 3 to 6 weeks.
Second Stage:
If the person infected does not get treatment in the first stage, the disease will develop into the second stage. This second stage is called secondary syphilis. It begins 6 to 12 weeks after contact with an infected person and may last for weeks to as long as a year. Symptoms during the second stage of syphilis can include:
a pink or red, bumpy, scaling skin rash that does not itch and may come and go (you can easily infect other people with this rash, which may include spots on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet)
flu symptoms such as fever, body aches, sore throat, headaches, tiredness, and loss of appetite
hair loss in clumps causing patchy baldness
gray or pink patches of fatty tissue in damp areas of the body (also highly infectious)
wartlike growths in the anal area.
Latent Period:
Often the second stage of syphilis is followed by a latent period. During latent syphilis you have no symptoms even though you have not been treated for the disease. This latent period may last a few years or it may last a lifetime.
Tertiary Syphilis (third stage):
One in three people who have latent syphilis develop the third stage of syphilis. This third stage is called tertiary syphilis and starts anywhere from 2 to 30 or more years after the second stage. During this stage, the disease can affect the brain, the aorta (the blood vessel that leads from the heart), and the heart. This can lead to severe heart disease, brain damage, paralysis, and death.
