Can men contract Syphilis from other men?

Yes they can. Not exclusive, to the extent of my knowledge. Anal sex will transmit the disease, if a person is infected. See this from the CDC…it’s pretty clear.

Syphilis is actually a lot more common in gay men than heterosexual men, at least in Western countries. For example, according to the CDC statistics, “in 2006, 64% of the reported primary and secondary syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men (MSM).”

of course i could have looked this up, but i’m interested to know if people are aware of this. i was thinking about the composer Schubert and his sexuality.

Yes, we’re aware. Thanks for checking in.

@shilolo i wasn’t

@mammal Can you elaborate on that? Why were you thinking about him?

@nope watching bits and pieces of a documentary about the composer, i assumed he was Homosexual and syphilitic, i was pondering the comparison to HIV and Homosexuality in the 1980’s, particularly amongst the celebrity class.

@mammal I see, sounds interesting. I think there were a lot of famous composers from that era that either were gay, or generally thought to be gay or at least have those tendencies. There’s heated discussion about some of them, with no obvious existing proof. Syphilis was running rampant in those days, too.

Didn’t Beethoven have the Syphilis too?

lmao
Is AIDS only a threat to homosexuals? ??
think about it… surely a higher testosterone count to esrogen won’t make one immune to human viruses.

@Odysseus i don’t understand

Eeeeeewww!!

@davidbetterman I never heard that about Beethoven…he was just a little crazy, probably because he was deaf and had all that music in his head.

It’s worth remembering that Syphilis can be passed from mother to unborn child also. Sexual activity does not have to be involved, which can make it very difficult to spot. Babies can be born blind, or deaf, but have no external symptoms.

Not sure if this relates directly to Beethoven or Schubert, but if a man contracts Syphilis through sexual contact, he can pass it to his wife. If she then becomes pregnant, even if she does not show symptoms, it can be passed to the child. All good fun eh? Loads of it in our history, the bug can survive for a number of generations too.

@choppersangel You are right, though in most countries it is standard of care to screen the mother for syphilis. This assumes that she has adequate prenatal care, but it is easily preventable.

Thanks @shilolo, I wasn’t really speaking of the disease in today’s world; more of the historical incidence (in line with the general discussion), when it simply would not have been understood.