My girlfriend is pregnant, should I worry?

Hmm, I know there are studies that may show Borrelia can be passed through sexual contact, just like syphilis, they just raise suspicion but not up to the standards of a scientific peer-reviewed paper. This one for eg, has been rejected 2 times and in the third attempt it was rejected by one reviewer and approved by another
f1000research.com/articles/3-309/v3

Long story short, nobody knows for sure... there might be a risk, but i think it is low. When transmitted by the tick, the borrelia bacteria takes advantage of the immuno-supressing effects of the tick saliva, which has chemicals that impair proper immune response at the site of the bite. If that were not the case, their bite will cause itching and pain, so animals/humans bitten by the tick will quickly scratch there and the tick will not stand a chance to get a feed (it has to stay attached for many hours to get a good blood meal). Borrelia takes advantage of this temporary immune impairment and disseminates through the body. Probably without the tick's special saliva it is much more complicated for Borrelia to get in your blood stream in large numbers without the immune system to quickly respond and kill it.

That does not mean it cannot happen, but probably the chances are smaller. I would say chances are much higher if the person has a serious problem with his/her immune system, like AIDS, some autoimmune conditions, takes steroids, etc...

The lack of research in the field of lyme disease is well known, and the fact the bacteria is a cousin of the Treponema Pallidum spirochete which causes syphilis and is transmitted sexually, raises some concerns...

NOTE: There are numerous news articles in the last months dealing with lyme disease, especially in UK media there is a big scare (i know i might be cynical but i am really really glad people panicked a bit about this condition, it has had way too little media attention for how bad and widespread it is). There are reports of "entire families" that are sick with lyme dailym.ai/1HmZdg3 and in the US yhoo.it/1PfNYN1. So yes this raises questions, but again, if you sit on the grass in an endemic region, all day with family, for years, chances are if you get bitten by a tick, they will get bitten by another tick, too. OR ... maybe there are other ways it which it can be transmitted that we don't know about, like sexual. We don't know. An aspect that seems has better research is that if the mother is sick with Lyme, she can transmit the disease to the fetus. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20925520

You could try to do a blood test to your wife, but as you know Lyme disease is a clinical diagnosis, so if she does not have any symptoms, the fact that she has the spirochete is maybe relevant only that you guys are aware of this and keep an eye on possible emergence of symptoms later.

Your girlfriend being pregnant has nothing to do with whether or not you passed Lyme on to her. The thing is if she has Lyme, she could pass it to the baby though.

While it's not be proven, with the bias against this type of information there won't be but a few very small studies done by LLMD's and they won't get "peer approval" because we don't have that for Lyme, much less how it can be passed sexually. There are a couple of small studies that have proven that Lyme bacteria can be found in semen, vaginal secretions and in breast milk though.

We have to remember that Lyme is carried by all kinds of insects though , mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas, even spiders and mites. So the potential for infection is all around us, but sexual transmission is a very real thing as well.

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