Somewhat OT: Lyme disease, vulvodynia, and pregnancy?

[Guest guest]

Hi fellow lymies,

This is rather off-topic, but I hope you'll permit me--I've found the

lyme-specific boards

to be less helpful, less women-centered, and, perhaps consequently, less

compassionate.

I'm wondering if any of you have any feedback about the contentious matter of

lyme and

pregnancy. As a 31 year old with endometriosis and cyclic vulvar pain, I had

already been

worried about the risk of increased pain with pregnancy (my vv is

yeast/mold-related) and

the prospect of parenting with a chronic illness. Now that I've been diagnosed

with lyme,

I'm told I also need to be worried about passing the disease to a fetus in

utero, through

my breast milk, etc., and that lyme-infected children have higher rates of

autism and

other forms of disability. ly, all this is enough to make me seriously

consider

adoption or remaining childless.

My LLMD (who is also my vulvodynia specialist) says there are specific

preventative and

treatment measures we can take before, during, and after pregnancy, but the

better-

tested of these involve antibiotics, which I'm afraid to take due to my fungal

problems (I

am treating my lyme herbally). Moreover, because of the endometriosis, my

partner and I

need to make a decision about whether or not to TTC in the next couple of years,

and

therefore can't assume that research on lyme and pregnancy will grow by leaps

and

bounds by the time we need to act. Any words of advice from those who've

encountered

these issues?

With gratitude,

Glomer