Lyme sexually transmitted by oral sex?

if u take antibiotics, any form of transmission, even through blood, is very very limited. So if u take abx u usually DON'T transmit it to anyone. This is why pregnant women if given doxy will have very low chance of giving it to their unborn child...

bacteria when antibiotics are taken, is usually in cyst form , and the spirochete form are very very few, cysts are usually in biofilms and dont have the same infectivity as the spirochetes.

besides this please understand this is not syphilis. Borrelia has a specific way of being transmitted and it involves a tick, this (the tick saliva) renders the immune system of the receiving host unable to fight the infection in the first hours/days where it got bitten , giving it the opportunity to disseminate.

Obviously this tranmission vector cannot apply in your case. This does not mean people cannot be infected in other ways, but it is much less probable AND if you also take abx during this time, i would say your chances are close to zero...

Post Edited (mpost) : 7/27/2017 11:55:30 PM (GMT-6)

This is a GIGANTIC area of Lyme science that needs much much more investigation.

First, there are other means for transmission than what the CDC and IDSA promote, which is ONLY through tick bite. There's plenty of evidence to the contrary so this point alone makes the CDC and IDSA horrible sources for Lyme health and information. I bet you already knew that.

There are two primary studies in the public realm (which means there may be more studies we just don't know about) that suggest Lyme can be sexually transmitted. I have also seen, with my own eyes, a primer for the US Army personnel that communicated steps for caution regarding transmission of Lyme disease. After looking for it again a few days ago, I can't find it online anywhere... But please know that at some point in time, the primer was created. If the primer was developed for the Army, it's safe to assume that the US military considered evidence of sexual transmission to be significant. Studies at the end of my post.

Many people have the Borrelia microbe in their bodies and do not develop Lyme disease--regardless of the means of infection.

Dr Allen MacDonald studied similarities between Bb spirochete and Syphilis - I would look into videos he has posted on Youtube. While I agree with mpost's characterization of "the way" Bb is transmitted through bite and its disabling of the immune response, which exacerbates a person's chances of developing Lyme disease from Bb, I do not agree that this, in turn, prohibits or severely limits sexual transmission of Bb and/or further manifestation into Lyme disease. The Bb spirochete causes disruption in the immune response in the body, regardless of how it got there.

I do agree w/ bluelyme that the presence of abx in the system helps reduce transmission where it can be reached, mainly in the blood. Given the info in the studies above, I'd still be cautious with bodily fluids. Also, you may transmit it sexually, and that person may not ever develop Lyme.

Others are probably going to disagree with me on this point -
I believe most people have the Bb in their bodies. Many people are asymptomatic and some go on to develop Lyme. And MOST of those people have a hard time getting properly diagnosed and end up with chronic Lyme, which is probably fairly contagious (but again, not everyone is susceptible to developing Lyme).

How many people is that? I don't know, but the odds are low that you will develop Lyme disease from casual sex. But I'd want to know if I had that low chance before I had sex with someone--why should someone else make that kind of decision for me? I would share with people in full disclosure everything you know and a reasonable level of caution.

Also, this day and age, "safe sex" is an oxy moron unless both partners are incredibly healthy, always remain super healthy and are hyper-vigilant. A bunch of stuff is being passed around, has been for decades. People are generally not dropping ill from all the sex so, as with everything else, it's all relative.

So - in YOUR case Brainzap -
Something made you more susceptible to developing symptomatic Lyme. In your case, as in mine and most everyone else on this forum unless they have one of those "easy" cases, you might fall into the category of more easily affected by ______ due to the way your immune system functions or some other context. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone else is more likely to receive transmission, but it might suggest that you are more likely to transmit.

In that respect, I would be more careful. I agree w/ bluelyme that you have more coverage w/ abx. Whether or not you go back in time and share w/ previous partners might be more of a logistics thing. I tried to - and couldn't get in contact with two of the men I previously dated so I just left it there. The crazy thing is that it is likely, over time, that you won't be the only person who is likely to transmit to them.

Here are the other two studies:

/sites.google.com/site/virginialyme/sexual

"In the study, researchers tested semen samples and vaginal secretions from three groups of patients: control subjects without evidence of Lyme disease, random subjects who tested positive for Lyme disease, and married heterosexual couples engaging in unprotected sex who tested positive for the disease. As expected, all of the control subjects tested negative for Borrelia burgdorferi in semen samples or vaginal secretions. In contrast, all women with Lyme disease tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi in vaginal secretions, while about half of the men with Lyme disease tested positive for the Lyme spirochete in semen samples. Furthermore, one of the heterosexual couples with Lyme disease showed identical strains of the Lyme spirochete in their genital secretions. The presence of the Lyme spirochete in genital secretions and identical strains in married couples strongly suggests that sexual transmission of the disease occurs,” said Dr. Mayne."
/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482345/
/f1000research.com/articles/3-309/v1
www.onlineprnews.com/news/454866-1390261507-lyme-disease-may-be-sexually-transmitted-study-suggests.html

"The culture of viable Borrelia spirochetes in genital secretions suggests that Lyme disease could be transmitted by intimate contact from person to person."
f1000research.com/articles/3-309/v3

"initial laboratory testing of semen samples provided by male Lyme patients (positive by western blot/PCR in blood) and the male sexual partner of a Lyme infected female patient were positive approximately 40% of the time. PCR recovery of Lyme DNA nucleotide sequences with microscopic confirmation of semen samples yielded positive results in 14/32 Lyme patients (13 male semen samples and 1 vaginal pap). ALL positive semen/vaginal samples in patients with known sexual partners resulted in positive Lyme titers/PCR in their sexual partners. 3/4 positive semen patients had no or unknown sexual partners to be tested."
www.anapsid.org/lyme/bach.html <----this link is no longer viable but including it in case somoone can reverse engineer it

-p

To echo both Pirouette and PeteZa,

A tick is not the only vector that carry and can transfer Borrelia. This has been scientifically proven. Other vectors such as spiders, mosquitoes, lice, and biting flies can as well.

And I also believe lyme is much more transferable than is currently understood. Maybe not "contagious" like the common cold but much more "transferable" from human to human.

LLMD MR says it is sexually transmitted.

THE Dr. J. also thinks it is.


So, some LLMD's do think so...but not all.

Pirouette said: I believe most people have the Bb in their bodies. Many people are asymptomatic and some go on to develop Lyme. And MOST of those people have a hard time getting properly diagnosed and end up with chronic Lyme, which is probably fairly contagious (but again, not everyone is susceptible to developing Lyme).

I'll elaborate on this a little further. As people age, their chance of acquiring Bb increases to the point that a majority of people over 50 years old most likely have Bb. Most of these people have no signs or symptoms of Lyme but the bacteria does effect biological function. The cumulative effect of our pathogens dictate our overall health. Disease states can be explained through the conditions that pathogens create. The more pathogens, the more biological function disruption that occurs, especially if a long period of time is involved. That is why some of us are sicker than others. Pathogens, nutrients, and epigenetic shifts all dictate how much biological disruption we have. Bb is just a component of that that happens to affect all three.