I have some questions about pregnancy and chronic lyme and am hoping to hear some actual accounts of your experiences.
I passed lyme and bartonella to my girlfriend about 4 years ago. She did not get nearly as sick as I did, but displayed many of the same symptoms (chronic headaches, burning eye pain, muscle spasms, fatigue, unrestfull sleep, brain fog�) She refuses to acknowledge or treat the disease, but has done fairly well considering this, as the severity of her symptoms are quite mild compared to most people.
I was not taking abx when we started dating, so I am wondering now, if she were to start taking abx 3 months before trying to get pregnant and continue to do so throughout the nine month pregnancy, what are the chances of having a healthy lyme free child? What are the risks of complications for my girlfriend? Is there any way I can get my semen tested to see if she would be re-infected when I try to impregnate her?
If anyone has gone into a pregnancy with chronic lyme, I would greatly appreciate hearing your story, and I apologize for asking you to retell it if the outcome was a sad one.
She had a great outcome by treating during pregnancy.
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
Here is a link to some information on Pregnancy and Lyme at Dr. J's website. I would hope folks who consider getting pregnant would take time to review it and think about it.
Hope it helps.
Posted by lymemomtb (Member # 23993) on :
I have chronic lyme and was treated during my pregnancy following reccomendations by Dr. J. Everything turned out great. Treatment was only Zithromax and Amoxicillin 2x/day, nursing was great too. Cord, placenta section, and cord blood all tested and all negative for Lyme. See if Clongen labs in Maryland tests Semen. Bigger concern in my opinion is your girlfriend not getting any treatment. Tell her at least do it for a few months prior to conception for the baby. Good luck!
Posted by Joe28 (Member # 33535) on :
Hi Lymemomtb,
That's great news. Do you know if you had any co-infections during your pregnancy? I am starting to wonder if the mixed results when it comes to utero transmission has to do with the co-infections rather than the lyme itself?
I am worried the bartonella is more easily transmitted.
Posted by scorpiogirl (Member # 31907) on :
Joe28,
I passed on Lyme to my 6 years old but so far she has tested negative for Bart and I have Bart.
I also have another friend who passed her Lyme to BOTH of her kids (ages 3 and 5, recently diagnosed and under treatment w/ LLMD in CT). The difference is in both of our cases we did not know we have Lyme thus were not treated at all and in both cases we passed the disease on in utero to our kids. I also nursed her too so who knows.
I would love to have another baby but I'm petrified at putting another child at risk seeing what my 6 years is going through right now. Besides physically I'm in no position to carry a child right now. Good luck if you decide to go for it!
Posted by lymemomtb (Member # 23993) on :
Joe28, The jury was out if I had coinfections..I had some real weird lung stuff (very rare with Lyme) my doc was pretty sure was from coinfections. It had been 10 years from my original positive test and he said testing for the coinfections wouldn't matter much because his treatments covered lyme and coinfections. I've heard there are more bad outcomes in pregnancy from people who never got any treatment for their lyme at all. My doc was pretty good at scaring me into thinking I was going to give birth to a giant tick...then I calmed down and did more research. There are a lot of people out there as well who never got treatment because they never knew they had lyme who have healthy kids too. There is no perfect answer, you just have to be lyme literate and make sound, safe choices that feel right for you and your girlfriend. Good luck!
Posted by lululymemom (Member # 26405) on :
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Joe28: [QB] Hello Everyone,
"I passed lyme and bartonella to my girlfriend about 4 years ago".
You should not assume you passed it on. It has never been conclusively proven to be sexually transmitted.
I have been in two long term relationships spanning 14 years and neither one has been infected.
Posted by FYRECRACKER (Member # 28568) on :
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Good luck if you decide to go for it!