Is there a med resistant syph

[Simontoxic]

Hey, 
So I got syph about a year and a half a go and had it treated. It doesn't seem to go away though and my levels are rising. Is it possible that the meds doesn't work or is this normal for syph?

[viking8x6]

Short story: Go to your doctor! They can interpret your situation better than people on the internet who have not even seen your tests and medical history!

You didn't say how it was treated - that makes a difference!

"It doesn't seem to go away" is a bit vague (though so is syphilis, come to that). Syphilis normally doesn't have much in the way of symptoms, except occasionally and then later on when it goes tertiary.

It is possible that the meds didn't work. Syphilis that is resistant to the azithromycin class and/or the tetracycline class of antibiotics is known, but it is still rare (thankfully).

If your RPR titer is rising, you probably (but not certainly) still have active syphilis.

[Guest]

Most likely you got re-infected @Simontoxic 

If you still test positive 18 months after first testing and treatment it can only mean that you got re-infected, not that your meds didn´t work. I assume that you were sexually active after the first test and treatment  18 months ago. 

As @viking8x6 says, follow what your doctor says and you'll be fine. Indeed, none of us in this forum can give you a reliable advice and really you should only rely on the advice from your doctor who has the history and details of the tests and medication.

[norefusal]

3 hours ago, Simontoxic said:

Hey, 
So I got syph about a year and a half a go and had it treated. It doesn't seem to go away though and my levels are rising. Is it possible that the meds doesn't work or is this normal for syph?

i was told that's it basically like herpes: it will never go away but will simply be contained. i was told this in part to explain why people will continue to tell me i tested pos for it even tho the levels are low. 

reinfection is always a possibility tho so that could explain why your levels went up if they did. although that implies you were tested and if so what did the heath care provider who tested you say about it? 

viking is right, we're not doctors so you should defer to professionals. but as a fellow traveler, i can tell you i was told it will always show up at some level. 

gono and chly may be visitors, but syph is the unwanted guest that will never leave  😜

[viking8x6]

10 minutes ago, norefusal said:

i was told that's it basically like herpes: it will never go away but will simply be contained. i was told this in part to explain why people will continue to tell me i tested pos for it even tho the levels are low. 

This is not correct.  Proper treatment will cure infection with syphilis (a bacterium).

However, most of the tests for syphilis are for antibodies (either to the syphilis bacterium or to other things that are generated in the disease process). Your body keeps making the antibodies even after the disease is cured. So you continue to test "positive". Sort of like +/U, except the infection is actually gone.

So after you have had it once, you have a baseline level of antibodies that doesn't go away. Your doctor should know what that is (if you don't happen to remember it yourself). Mine is an RPR titer of 1:1. If you get re-infected, the body will ramp up production of the antibodies and the level will rise. The diagnostic standard for that is that a rise of four-fold (from baseline) in the RPR titer indicates re-infection.

 

 

[norefusal]

thanks @viking8x6 for the clarification. i was more triggered by the "this will go down on your permanent record" aspect of the conversation than following the science tbh 😜

[Spunkinmyarse]

As a non-medic, it always baffles (and annoys) me that our bodies are perfectly capable of producing antibodies in response to syphilis, but antibodies that are completely useless when it comes to controlling the disease.

[RawNerdUK]

I had it once, caught it early... Got treatment.. but yeah since the test is for the antibodies so now always test +ve for it... so have to tell new doctors so they know to run the slower test which actually looks for the thing itself.

[BBBxCumDumpster]

4 minutes ago, RawNerdUK said:

I had it once, caught it early... Got treatment.. but yeah since the test is for the antibodies so now always test +ve for it... so have to tell new doctors so they know to run the slower test which actually looks for the thing itself.

Is the slower test done initially if you have a history of infection, or is this the test that is done after the antibody test to detect/confirm re-infection?

[RawNerdUK]

2 minutes ago, BBBxCumDumpster said:

Is the slower test done initially if you have a history of infection, or is this the test that is done after the antibody test to detect/confirm re-infection?

Well it seems they do the slow one, but the lab needs to be on the ball... have had a few 'scares' where they do the fast test and told me to call them... I then point out I had it before and they then go "Oh, don't worry about it... shall do the other test to see if it is active".

[Simontoxic]

22 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

Short story: Go to your doctor! They can interpret your situation better than people on the internet who have not even seen your tests and medical history!

You didn't say how it was treated - that makes a difference!

"It doesn't seem to go away" is a bit vague (though so is syphilis, come to that). Syphilis normally doesn't have much in the way of symptoms, except occasionally and then later on when it goes tertiary.

It is possible that the meds didn't work. Syphilis that is resistant to the azithromycin class and/or the tetracycline class of antibiotics is known, but it is still rare (thankfully).

If your RPR titer is rising, you probably (but not certainly) still have active syphilis.

Thank you for your answer. They found it quite late, estimated to have had it for a year before diagnosis and had symptoms of sores. I then underwent treatment which was three injections one week apart from each other. Don't know the specific medication. My latest test showed that the infection was 1/8 and lrevois test showed 1/4, 1/1

[viking8x6]

1 hour ago, Simontoxic said:

Thank you for your answer. They found it quite late, estimated to have had it for a year before diagnosis and had symptoms of sores. I then underwent treatment which was three injections one week apart from each other. Don't know the specific medication. My latest test showed that the infection was 1/8 and lrevois test showed 1/4, 1/1

That would be penicillin injections, which is the gold standard for treatment, especially when it's not a new infection.

If RPR titer dropped down to 4:1 and 1:1 after treatment, the treatment did work.

Going back up to 8:1 (a change of eightfold) very probably means reinfection (as @EuRawBull said). Oh joy, more shots in the ass for you!

[Hole4u]

As stated before, the doctors can interpret this better than us. It’s important to check out since you don’t need this to get any worse if it’s syphilis rearing its ugly head again. Trust me on this one, I don’t want you going through anything close to what I have to. 
 

It’s also important to know other conditions can raise the titer, especially autoimmune issues. Go get checked out thoroughly. 
 

Best of luck to you. 

[rawwhitebottom]

There is no drug resistant syph nor will there be.

The gold standard treatment of choice for the encapsulated spirochete is long acting penicillin injection 

the antibiotic does nothing more than dissolves the protein capsule the bacteria is enclosed in. Once that s dissolved your own immune system destroys the bacteria, kills it off and the infection is over. 

[Simontoxic]

I went in for another checkup and the syphilis hadn't "increased" so they ruled out reinfection and told me to come back a year later. I did however test positive for gono. So now there's that aswell