Dear Stephen,
Thank you so much for your work. In the Transmission section of your website and book you mention “long term” sexual contact as a possible means of transmission. Does this mean that the carrier of lyme has been treated and is sexually active? What if the person with lyme had it and did not know it, and then had sex untreated? I believe this may have been the means that I received the disease, even though it was not through prolonged sexual contact. It was really just a couple times before we found out that my partner had lyme. We ceased sexual contact shortly thereafter. I am a 23 year old woman and have taken a round of antibiotics and am on your core protocol. My periods have quickly become so light and scant as to be worrisome. I am also worried about vaginal atrophy. Is this possible? I have mild physical symptoms, but fierce emotional/mental ones. Your thoughts would be very much valued. Thanks so much again.
Thank you so much for your work. In the Transmission section of your website and book you mention “long term” sexual contact as a possible means of transmission. Does this mean that the carrier of lyme has been treated and is sexually active? What if the person with lyme had it and did not know it, and then had sex untreated? I believe this may have been the means that I received the disease, even though it was not through prolonged sexual contact. It was really just a couple times before we found out that my partner had lyme. We ceased sexual contact shortly thereafter. I am a 23 year old woman and have taken a round of antibiotics and am on your core protocol. My periods have quickly become so light and scant as to be worrisome. I am also worried about vaginal atrophy. Is this possible? I have mild physical symptoms, but fierce emotional/mental ones. Your thoughts would be very much valued. Thanks so much again.
Stephen’s response:
I have not reviewed the data on this in some time, however, when I wrote the book studies had found that there was a statistically significant relation between long term sexual contact and lyme infections in spouses. The spirochetes are excreted through the kidneys and do end up in the sexual organs as a result. I am not aware of vaginal atrophy from lyme, not something that has come up in my reading or research so far.
I have not reviewed the data on this in some time, however, when I wrote the book studies had found that there was a statistically significant relation between long term sexual contact and lyme infections in spouses. The spirochetes are excreted through the kidneys and do end up in the sexual organs as a result. I am not aware of vaginal atrophy from lyme, not something that has come up in my reading or research so far.
Stephen
In my own experience, B. bugdorferi was not easily transmitted. From the time I felt extreme fatigue (undiagnosed Lyme) until my divorce in 1994, I had sex daily with my first wife — 3600 times total (about 10% of it, oral). Last year (18 years after the divorce) my ex told me her health is still very good and never had any weird symptoms. In 1997, two years into my second marriage, I had neuro symptoms. Medical diagnosis and start of treatment didn’t occur until 2004. Until then, I had had unprotected sex with my second wife about 900 times. As of today, she has had no Lyme symptoms (and no Bb positives at Igenex). So, as a first and extremely rough order-of-magnitude estimate, the probability of a man transmitting Bb sensu stricto might be less than one per 3600-4,500 sex acts.
I can say for sure that in our case, Lyme IS & was sexually transmitted. I have Chronic Lymes Disease w/ a co-infection of Bartonella. I pushed aside all symptoms and pushed on and on until I finally all but crashed. After some research, we had my husband tested for Lyme. Posative but not chronic. I’m the one that spends an afternoon walking and jogging in the woods,well I used to anyway. I think I got it the day I pulled a dead deer off the road. I was instantly covered in little ticks. My husbands treatment is going well & he should be good or around 90%. With me, who knows. I just started my second year of treatment. Yay. Cystic Lyme and not curable are words I never thought I would hear. I used to be the woman that worked 1-3 jobs and didn’t rest until all was done. The one that used to say,”Can’t never did nothin.” Now, I’m the one saying,”I can’t…” Lyme can and is sexually transmitable and transmitable to fetus from mother. Please feel free to contact me.
I don’t see how anyone can decisively tell if Lyme is sexually transmissible or not.
A tick or flea of mosquito can bite anyone and the symptoms may not appear for years.
So how could someone prove this or test this transmission by sex?
People who live together share the same habitat so could easily be exposed at the same or similar times or in similar ways.
You would have to find a partner who is known not to have lyme (already a challenge.,… could have latent lyme) who has never been in the outdoors (or at least hasn’t been since 1975 or whenever they discovered Lyme) conservatively. No pets either. No bugs either, even ones that could fly inside a house.
You’d need someone with a clear,measurable infection to expose someone else and then when they got Lyme, meausure their infection. I think that’s the only way. And who would volunteer for that research? And beyond that, we’re back to the question of chronic late stage lymers… we can’t even test a lot of them!
in other diseases like Hep C (which you get via blood products) they can study cohabiting partners since it’s easy to measure antibodies. Even there, the jury is still out as to whether that is sexually transmissible!~ They look at population data on monogamous couples and see if the partner got Hep C over time. So far it doesn’t seem very transmissible. Even there… was it a shared toothbrush or sex? See how hard this gets?
My boyfriend was recently diagnosed with Lyme and currently being treated with antibiotics. We have been in a monogamous relationship for almost 2 years now and have had unprotected sex for the duration of our relationship. With all the seemingly unknowns on whether Lyme is sexually transmitted or not, we thought it best that I get tested. My Igenex test results came back positive for lyme, for both the CDC and IGX criteria. I do not have any symptoms (that I am aware of) and I am going to start antibiotics soon. At this point, there is very little extensive research done by the scientific community on whether lyme can be sexually transmitted or not. I do not know if I tested positive for the antibodies because I have had sexual contact with my boyfriend and had some level or degree of exposure to the bacteria from his semen. Is this degree of exposure enough to actually transmit lyme or has my immune system been able to fight this amount of lyme vs the amount of bacteria that is transmitted via a tick bite or insect? I look forward to the day when the medical establishment starts to take Lyme seriously and perform studies and research that can answer this important question. Lyme is a public health concern and people need to know if they are at risk for sexual transmission.
Great question and good comments. I would imagine that any systemic infection could essentially and eventually be transmitted sexually. I know ureaplasma and mycoplasma can. The thing is that it is true that lyme is everywhere now. I have a friend that had a tick bite and bulls eye rash years ago and she never got treated and both she and her husband have zero lyme symptoms. As a therapist, a lot can be said for your immune system and emotional state. Its been proven that people who have suffered severe traumas tend to get chronically sick more frequently than an emotionally unstable person. Its never wrong to be cautious. I think it’s very individual.
what would your guys advice be to someone who is just realizing the severity of Lyme but would one day want to have a wife and a lot of children, but don’t want to pass it on to them or anyone else. is there a herb that specifically prevents the spirochetes bacteria from showing up in your saliva or sperm. or would you just have to rely on the invasive herbs from Buhner’s protocol? there has to be a way to live a full life with Lyme, there should be a book about Lyme and sex
No book will get written without medical research. Meanwhile, it seems we should adopt the same precautions partners take for syphilis, since it is also caused by a spirochete (like Lyme).
Here’s what Buhner advised in response to a similar question:
I would recommend his wife use astragalus 1,000 mg daily as a regular part of her diet. This should help prevent infection, and if she should be infected the disease course would most likely be mild. The higher the immune function, the less likely infection will occur. Stephen
My alternative doctor said that men do very well on astragalus long term but that when he prescribed it to women they almost always began to have hormonal irregularities. I could not take it for very long for these reasons. There are other immune supporting herbs and treatments that may be better long term if someone experiences problems.
I wonder this same thing. My two year old was diagnosed with Lyme in July. Does this mean he can never have children without risking giving Lyme to his partner? This makes me horribly upset that my son is only two and has a disease that could hinder so much, and even a future sex life!