When you think about sexual wellness and wellbeing, we are betting that Lyme disease isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Nevertheless, around 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year. This illness comes from ticks and can cause serious health problems including facial paralysis, arthritis and even a heart attack. The disease is even on the rise in the states, particularly in the North East, and last year a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 10 times more Americans have suffered from the disease than was previously thought.
To add fuel to the fire, a team of international researchers has published an astounding study that looks into a very controversial theory, looking at whether or not Lyme disease could be sexually transmitted.
These findings could change the way in which Lyme disease is viewed and treated, both by doctors and patients. The lead author of the study, Marianne Middelveen, works as a microbiologist in Canada, and she says that the sexual transmission theory explains why the disease is far more common than we might expect.
The team also included two molecular biologists from the USA, and they tested vaginal and semen samples from three separate groups of subjects. First, there was a control group who did not have the disease. Next, there was a group of people who had all tested positive for the disease. The final group was a group of married couples (all heterosexual) who both had the disease and who were regularly having unprotected sex with one another). Both the semen and vaginal samples tested positive for the disease, indicating that it is possible to transmit the disease sexually. In addition to this, the researchers found that one married couple had an identical strain of the Lyme bacteria.
