HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

ANY information welcome re: Sexual Transmission

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 11/20/2013 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
I am looking for any good serious information on the spread of Lyme through any type of sexual means. Are there ANY real studies done on this yet??

I have just spoken to a very well-regarded LLMD regarding sexual transmission of Lyme. I was told that kissing and oral sex has never been shown to spread the disease, in the literature he has. He has told me, though, that it is very commonly spread with regular sex when unprotected, which I believe.

Is his information very limited in anyone's opinion, from their experience or the experiences they've heard of? Please let me know if so!<!-- Edit -->

Does anyone have any information regarding the likelihood of new Lyme patients being able to spread the disease sexually vs. the likelihood of chronic Lyme patients spreading it?

Post Edited By Moderator (opugirl) : 11/20/2013 10:28:55 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 11/20/2013 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Bodymind,

Welcome to our forum! I combined all of your postings into one thread since they were on the same topic!I haven't looked into this topic very much. Unfortunately - I blame lack of awareness and acceptance of the disease to topics like this to not have been given more research money.

I believe lyme can be spread through sexual contact. It would stand to reason that it would be much easier for men to give it to women then vice versa - as has been shown with STD's. This would also be a difficult study I believe given the lack of accurate testing for lyme in general.

Also - family members that do the same things are in the same areas would have the same risk factors for exposure - aside from sexual contact making it even that more difficult to determine the origin of illness.

Hopefully - more research money will be given for topics like this in the future.

~beth
Posted 11/20/2013 7:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Bodymind,
I have looked into this as I was concerned for my husband once I realized that I had Lyme. As Opugirl said, not much monies have been devoted to this aspect of Lyme disease - yet.

Here is the only thing I've been able to find on the possibility of spreading it through sexual contact:
www.anapsid.org/lyme/bach.html

So far it's only been found in, uhmmm, "male secretions" and breast milk and tears, and of course infected tissues, blood, and blood products as well. At this point there have been no actual studies, only what one or two LLMD/researchers have seen clinically.

So the best thing to do is to stay safe. If you are male (sorry), then I would suggest having your partner checked, or better yet, protect them. If you are female, the best thing you can do is to be careful.

What you can spread by kissing/oral contact is viruses though, so do be careful with that!

As for personal experiences - I've been married 3 times (chronic illness can be rough on relationships), and have had 2 children and not a single one of them has had any tick-borne infections. This does not say that it can't happen, but I've been "lucky" so far. Without proper studies done, no one knows the true risk that is involved.
Posted 11/21/2013 6:42 PM (GMT 0)
I believe that Lyme can be transmitted easily by sex from males and females. I believe that I was born with Lyme and my two sisters were too. We all have LD and have (I believe) passed it on to our husbands and our children and we have the tests to prove that! All three spouses have it and so far four of the six kids have tested positive (we are waiting on test results from the other two) . My brother and his wife are looking into getting tested. His wife shows a lot of symptoms.

Good luck!
Posted 11/21/2013 8:03 PM (GMT 0)
I do think it can be sexually transmitted, especially through male to female contact. I think some strains of Lyme may be stronger than others, and I wonder if that plays a part in sexual transmission. I also wonder about a person's total spirochete load, if a person has a higher load does that mean the disease would be easier to pass on? I don't know. I'm sure science will be able to answer these questions eventually, but in the meantime we should err on the side of caution!
Posted 11/22/2013 7:21 PM (GMT 0)
The thing that makes it hard is that we haven't had even a decent amount of scientific study done on any aspect of these diseases, much less on the transmission of them!

Also one must keep in mind that families travel and do activities together, frequently putting themselves at risk for getting these infections at the same time - like going camping, being out in a yard that is full of ticks and other possible vectors, and other things like going to see 'Grandma' and her place is a haven for those bugs.

There has been no studies done for sexual transmission from female to male or the other way around to be honest. A couple of LLMD's/researchers have just found spirochetes in - e-hem - male secretions is all.

The same goes for tears, breast milk and cord blood. No studies being done on these things, just a few doctors are finding it.

I agree with Bluebyyou - we should err on the side of caution!!
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply