​Syphilis

Syphilis is a very infectious sexually transmissible infection (STI). You can get syphilis from having unprotected vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, or close skin to skin contact with someone. Unprotected sex is when you have sex without a condom, or an oral dam.

Syphilis normally starts as a painless ulcer or sore on your vagina, penis, anus, or mouth. As many as 50% of people have no symptoms, and wouldn’t know they had syphilis unless they got a blood test to check.

If syphilis is left untreated, it can cause damage to the heart, brain, and spinal cord.

Syphilis can be passed from a pregnant person to their pēpi through the placenta. It can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or infection in the pēpi if it’s not treated.  

It can take 10 days to 3 months before you notice any signs of syphilis — that’s why it’s so important to get regular STI tests!

Early symptoms of syphilis can include:

• One or more usually painless ulcers — called chancres — on your vagina, cervix, penis, anus, or mouth 
• Enlarged glands in the groin 
• No symptoms at all — in as many as 50% of people 

Later symptoms of syphilis can include: 

• Rash – often on the chest and back, but can also be on the hands and feet. It often appears suddenly and lasts for around 6 weeks  
• Fever, feeling generally unwell 
• Enlarged glands 
• Mouth ulcers 
• Hair loss 
• Warty growths in the genital area or around the anus 

The only way to find out for sure if you have syphilis is to get a test.  

Testing for syphilis is done by:  

• A blood test   

Your nurse or doctor will organise for you to have a blood test at the lab. You should be contacted with your test result within a week.   

If you are hapū, you will be offered a blood test for syphilis as part of your early pregnancy screening. 

Make an appointment with us — we can organise a test for syphilis. 

If you are diagnosed with syphilis, your nurse or doctor will organise treatment with the help of a sexual health specialist. You will need some ongoing checks to make sure the treatment has worked.

Make sure that you tell your nurse or doctor if you are allergic to antibiotics, or if you could be hapū. This will help them prescribe you the correct antibiotics.

It’s really important that anyone you’ve had sex with in the last 3 months is tested for syphilis. It is highly infectious.  

Condoms and oral dams can protect against syphilis, and other STIs. Using lube with condoms can make sex more pleasurable for some people, and can prevent the condom from breaking by reducing friction.

Lots of STIs don’t have obvious symptoms — so it’s important to get tested for STIs before and after unprotected sex, or anytime you have sex with a new person. 

If you’re having sex with several people — or the person you have sex with is having sex with several people — talk to us about how often you should be screened for syphilis and other STIs. 

If you find out that you have syphilis, there are a few important things that you need to do: 

• Get treated. The person who diagnosed the syphilis should organise your treatment
• It’s a good idea to tell the people that you have had sex with recently — if it is safe for you to do — that they will need to get tested or treated for syphilis. Your health provider may be able to help you tell those people
• It’s much better not to have sex until you have been treated for syphilis. It is highly infectious and is easily passed on through sex 
• It’s a good idea to use condoms or oral dams if you do have sex