What are the symptoms of reactive arthritis?

The most common symptoms of reactive arthritis are:

• painful and swollen joints, usually in your lower limbs (ankles, knees or toes), which develop over a few days following stiffness
• swelling and tenderness of the tendons surrounding joints, e.g. the Achilles tendon
• swelling of individual fingers or toes so that they look like sausages – sometimes called a sausage digit (dactylitis)

Other joints including your fingers, wrists, elbows and the joints at the base of your spine (sacroiliac joints) can also become inflamed.

Joint pain and swelling are often the only symptoms of reactive arthritis. But other possible symptoms include:

• inflamed, red eyes (conjunctivitis)
• scaly skin rashes over your hands or feet (known as keratoderma blenorrhagica)
• diarrhoea, which may start some time before the arthritis
• mouth ulcers
• inflammation of the genital tract which produces a discharge from your vagina or penis
• in men, a sore rash over the end of the penis
• weight loss and fever