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Sex problems of man in health and disease

Chapter 50: Chancroid
By Moses Scholtz
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About This Book

The book offers a practical, matter-of-fact guide to male sexual anatomy, physiology, and psychology, and to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexual disorders and venereal diseases. It explains normal sexual function and self-regulation, discusses masturbation and sexual continence, examines nonvenereal and venereal pathologies including gonorrhea, syphilis, chancroid, and their complications, and addresses impotence, sterility, and sexual neurasthenia. Social topics treated include prostitution, double standards of morality, public ignorance, and prophylactic measures, with emphasis on sex education, moral and medical prevention, and practical tests and therapies for cure. A concluding questionnaire and clinical recommendations aim to guide patients and practitioners toward healthier sexual conduct.

Chancroid

Now before going over the greatest of all venereal scourges, Syphilis, we shall briefly consider the third and the least dangerous of the venereal diseases—Chancroid.

Chancroid is also called a soft chancre, to differentiate it from hard chancre, which is the initial sore of Syphilis.

Chancroid usually appears from two to five days after exposure, seldom longer. It may develop on the skin of any part of the sexual organs. It starts as a small red spot or pimple, which rapidly breaks down and forms a round ulcer, painful on touch, with undermined borders and profusely secreting pus surface. Chancroid may start at once as a multiple ulcer or it may grow in numbers after it has started as a single sore. The number of Chancroids may reach five, ten, or even more. The peculiar characteristic of Chancroid is that its poison can be transferred from one place to another by contact, and it is a common clinical fact, particularly in uncleanly and careless people, that a single Chancroid or ulcer may duplicate itself on the skin surface that comes in contact with the Chancroid.

Chancroid is usually painful and disables a man to a smaller or greater extent, so for this reason it is seldom neglected. Under proper care, Chancroid heals up in from three to six weeks. Only in exceptional cases, due to low vitality and general debility of the patient, or due to unusual virulence (intensity) of the Chancroidal poison, the Chancroidal ulcer assumes a gangrenous character, and in spite of the best treatment, shows a tendency to spread and to destroy a large area of tissue. But even in these rare cases, after a few weeks or months, the ulcerated area gradually heals up without leaving any permanent systemic damage.

The only complication Chancroid has is a development of bubo, an abscess of inguinal (groin) glands. Buboes develop in about half the Chancroidal cases, and are treated by incision on general surgical principles. The average duration of a bubo is from three to four weeks, and the total duration of the average Chancroid and bubo from six to eight weeks.

While Chancroid brings more pain and distress and disables a patient more than many Gonorrheal complications and average Syphilitic cases, in reality, Chancroid is the least harmful of all venereal diseases, as it has a self-limited duration, never penetrates into the blood, does not lead to any deep or constitutional complication, and does not affect whatsoever the second generation.