Dear Dog-ter
A friend of mine is getting treated for syphilis. He didn't know he had it until some guy started to go down on him at the baths. The guy jerked back and bolted for the door when he saw an oozy red-hot crater on my friend's dick. (He showed it to me and I don't see how he could have missed it. It was so red it looked like a stoplight). I say the idiot didn't feel it cause he was using too much speed. He says he didn't notice it because syph sores don't cause pain. Who's right? Also can you get syphilis in your mouth or butt? What's the deal?
PS. Who's the famous person that went crazy from syphilis? I can't remember. Do you know? I figure since my friend is already loony at least he'll have some company.
Syph-less in Denver

Dear Syph-less,
Hope you didn't bet your shoes because you'd be dancing barefoot in Volunteer Park. He's right. His sore was painless because syphilis kills the nerve endings in the infected area. This is a true case of where no pain really means no gain.

Syphilis is caused by a corkscrew-shaped germ that drills its way into mucous mem brane tissue. This is the soft, thin skin on penises, in vaginas, butt-holes and in our mouths. Once you catch syphilis, it can take from 10 days to 3 months before you see the first sign. Some times, you won't see anything at all. If it is not treated syphilis can go on into three stages.

In the first stage a single, painless sore or ulcer grows wherever the bacteria first drilled into you. If you're a bottom this sore is going to grow in your butt. If you give head it will grow in your mouth. Since it doesn't hurt, you may not even know it's there. All you have to do to spread syphilis is bring the right type of mucous membrane into contact with this sore which teems with these bugs. No body fluids required – just tag, you're it. This sore can last for several weeks and then will just go away on its own. But the bugs are still in you.

After that you may not see anything else for a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Then, in the second stage, you may notice a rash on your face, chest, back, the palms of your hands or the bottoms of your feet. It can be very faint and it won't itch. You might also get fevers, what look like large warts in your genital area, white patches in your mouth or you may just feel tired all the time. If these symptoms show up some place that's moist (where the corkscrew germs can swim around), all you have to do to spread it is expose a partner's soft mucous membrane tissue. Sometimes the rash is so faint that people don't notice it or they think it's something else--like an allergy. All of these symptoms will go away by themselves within a month and a half. But again, the bugs are still there.

After this, you can enter the third stage. Syphilis can lie around in your body for years before it does anything else. If you carry it long enough, it can cause sores in your brain or eat away at other internal organs. Untreated, it can lead to insanity, a ruptured aorta (the main blood vessel from your heart) or death. (Remember Al Capone?) The other worry with syphilis is that all those open sores make it easier to catch HIV.

Now, here's the good news. Syphilis is easy to detect and very curable.
Recently there have been several cases of infectious syphilis among gay or bisexual men in Denver County. Most of these men report anonymous park or bathhouse sex.

So . . . if you or your partner have indulged, this is a very good time to visit your local STD clinic or doctor for a checkup. (Look for the free coupon in AmphetaZINE). If a partner or public health person tells you that you've been exposed to syphilis, see your doctor immediately. If the medicine is given before the first sore appears you won't get any symptoms at all.

As for famous people who have had syphilis, the list is long.

Here's a short sample: Henry VIII, Paul Gaugin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ivan the Terrible, Ramses V, Peter the Great, Pope Leo X, Benito Mussolini, and the more than 400 Black Alabama sharecroppers who were not treated in the infamous Tuskegee experiment.
the Dog-ter

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