You know, have we actually seen any of these symptoms? I think we saw Rand start to rot away in one of the alternate-lives he lived in the portal stone, but other than that it seems as though everyone has gone insane rather than suffer the other forms of the taint. I suspect that madness was the symptom that struck most people, with the other symptoms being quite rare.



How is it possible that the male Aes Sedai would not notice the taint? "Gee, looks like LTT went all insane and blew himself up and all the other hundred companions are now raving lunatics too. Oh, and it seems that every time I touch saidin now, it feels as though I am drinking sewage that is seeping into my mind and soul. I wonder if there could be a connection with that since the feel of saidin did change exactly when LTT&co went mad? Naah, it must be just a coincidence, no need to worry about it". Unlikely.



However even the ones who went insane quickly and without warning likely did so because the amount of darkness in their brains reached some critical level. If there were no other effects, then removing the darkness would basically cure madness completely. You could have compulsory darkness-removal for every male Aes Sedai once every month or something and prevent anyone ever going mad that way since the darkness would never be able to grow big enough to matter.

There would have to be something more to that, something that makes it possible only now that the actual taint is gone.