The main symptoms of syphilis in its early stages are the hard chancre and swollen lymph nodes.
1. Hard chancre: The initial manifestation is an erythema of the external genitalia, which occurs most frequently on the penis, glans, prepuce and ligament in men and on the labia, cervix and perineum in women. The erythema is necrotic and forms a painless round or oval ulcer 1-2 centimeters in diameter.
2. Swollen lymph nodes: When the chancre appears for one to two weeks, swollen lymph nodes in the groin or the affected area are visible, but there is no obvious pain. Dark red or dark purple edema with vesicles and ulcers appears on the genitals or other parts of the body. The rest of the systemic symptoms are not obvious.
Early syphilis is not easy to detect because the actual symptoms are not obvious until the second stage when the symptoms increase and are more complicated, so it is important to go to the hospital as early as possible for diagnosis and treatment.