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Complications AdviceSyphilis can be treated if caught early. If not, serious complications can results. And these complications can be incredibly, even fatally, serious. Unfortunately, the complications are not relegated to those engaging in sexual contact. Syphilis that spread to the nervous system is known as neurosyphilis and it affects the brain, the spinal chord and the nerves. Occurring in roughly 8% of syphilis sufferers who go untreated, symptoms range from headaches and incontinence to memory loss, muscle paralysis and delusions. Neurosyphilis can occur anywhere from five to thirty-five years after the initial infection and occurs in men more than women and Caucasians more than African-Americas. Cardiovascular syphilis often results in scarring of the heart valves, the formation of an aortic aneurysm or even a heart attack. It usually begins between five to ten years following infection, but has known to lay dormant for up to thirty years. Benign late syphilis is characterized by development of gammas. What are gammas? They are tough, rubber-like growths that usually develop on the skin or bones, but can also develop in such places as the liver or stomach and eyes or throat. They typically develop from three to ten years after infection. Preinstall inflammation is an inflammation of membrane around the bones, which tend to be quite painful. The inflammation itself results in the bone actually thickening and can be seen most often on the skull, ribs, the breastbone and the bones of the legs. Skin damage associated with syphilis can include alopecia which results in thinning or even the loss of hair, including one’s eyebrows and beard, as well as development of scaly skin. It is possible for pregnant women to pass syphilis onto their unborn child. Bacterially infected blood can reach the fetus via the placenta. Over fifty percent of pregnant women with active and untreated syphilis pass it on to their unborn children. Of these pregnancies, between twenty-five and fifty percent will result in miscarriage. Those babies who do actually achieve birth from mothers suffering from syphilis can themselves experience complications that range from abnormalities in bone development and pain to vision or hearing problems to disfigurement and scarring. |
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