This article looks at the symptoms and causes of chancroid, including how it differs from syphilis.
Chancroid Symptoms
Chancroid is often mistaken for syphilis in the early stages.
The blister will typically rupture and form a deep ulcer with well-defined borders.
Keith Brofsky / Photodisc / Getty Images
By contrast, syphilis ulcers, calledchancres, are usually painless.
The base on a chancroid ulcer can bleed easily if scratched or rubbed.
Chancroid can also cause swelling, tenderness, and inflammation of thelymph nodes in the groin.
In fact, the swelling can sometimes be so severe that the lymph node rupture, causing a drainingabscess.
This is also not a symptom associated with syphilis.
Males with chancroid generally get one ulcer, while females can get many.
Females may also experiencedysuria(pain with urination), while males usually won’t.
Untreated chancroid ulcers can persist for up to three months and cause significant scarring.
Sores usually develop within 10 days of exposure.
Ulcers may grow as large as two inches.
Ulcers are very painful.
Around 50% people will experience swollen lymph nodes in the groin.
Sores usually develop within 21 days of exposure.
Ulcers are typically smaller than an inch.
Ulcers are typically painless.
Swollen lymph nodes are not common.
This is referred to asautoinoculation.
Chancroid is relatively rare in the United States, although sporadic local outbreaks have been known to occur.
Each dose is measured in either grams (g) or milligrams (mg).
For this reason, follow-up testing should be performed three to seven days after completing therapy.
For most people, symptoms will start to improve within that time frame.
Anyone suspected of having chancroid should also betested for HIV.
Sexual partners will likely be treated as a precaution.
Around half of the people with chancroid will experience swollen lymph nodes in the groin.
The differentiation is especially important because chancroid and syphilis are treated differently.
What works for syphilis will likely not work for chancroid, and vice versa.
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