almost 2 months ago i had an outbreak of open sores. they lasted for about a month. i had about 15 of them on my lower bikini area ( if i was wearing a thong, i had the sore where the thin part that goes up your butt is, but on both sides of my anus and vagina) and they were pretty painful and a little itchy. i went to my doctors and she gave me a visual diagnoses of herpes. i got blood testing for herpes and pretty much every other std out there. i went back to my doctors to get the second herpes test (to compare virus levels i guess) and i was told that my test came back and it turned out i had syphilis.

so my questions are:

1) can syphilis chankers be painful?

2) are there many cases of a person contracting syphilis but not see symptoms(sores) for a lengthy period of time ( year or more)?

3)can syphilis be found when swabbing the sores?

if you could help i would appreciate it quite a bit.