Reiter’s syndrome is a form of arthritis with a collection of symptoms with involvement of many organs such as joints, eyes, skin, bladder, genitals, and mucus membranes. It may occur after the infections such as Campylobacter, Chlamydia, Yersinia, Shigella or Salmonella. Besides theses infections, a person with positive genetic factor HLA-B27 is more susceptible to this disorder. The symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome are dependant on the body part which is affected by this disorder.

The three major symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome are conjunctivitis, arthritis and urethritis. The onset of symptoms is seen 1-4 weeks after the initial infection. The arthritis associated with the Reiter’s syndrome usually affects the joints of ankles, knees and feet which can cause swelling and pain in the joints, while fingers, wrists and other joints are less commonly affected. Arthritis in the Reiter’s syndrome may result in the damage to the joints in back and result in spondylitisn or sacroiliitis and people with HLA-B27 gene are at higher risk of developing spondylitis or sacroiliitis. However, in most people, the joint inflammation caused due to Reiter’s syndrome does not result in the permanent damage or disability of the joints.

In addition to these symptoms, there may be enthesopathy mean an inflammation of tendons which may cause pain in heel as well as thickening and shortening of toes and fingers. Besides that, there may be development of heel spurs, a bony growth in the heel which may cause chronic pain in foot.
As conjunctivitis is one of the common symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome, this disease can cause the inflammation of conjunctiva and may result in eye pain and irritation, redness of the eyes and blurred vision. Generally, the eye infections are found in the people with Salmonella-associated arthritis.
As the infection of genitourinary tract is associated with the Reiter’s syndrome, this disease may affect penis, urethra and prostate in men and vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes in women. Men may experience increased frequency of urination with a burning sensation as well as discharge from the penis. In addition to this, there may be a risk of developing prostatitis, inflammation of prostate gland in some cases. Women with Reiter’s syndrome may develop the symptoms like an inflammation of the urethra (urethritis), which may cause the burning sensation during micturition or an inflammation of the cervix (cervicitis).
Besides this, some other symptoms are small, painless lesions or sores known as balanitis circinata seen on the roof of the tongue or mouth or on the head of penis.