Can STD pass through breastfeeding?

Can STD pass through breastfeeding?

Sexually transmitted diseases are common infections affecting both men and women and are most common in those between the age of 15-24- the sexually active age. They are also sexually transmitted infections because one can pass them to another through sexual contact.

Most STDs don’t show signs and symptoms or show them after weeks, months, or even years after contracting the infections. So unless you regularly go for STD screening, you may have it, and you don’t know.

For this reason, STDs are pretty common, with more than one million cases reported daily, majority asymptomatic. Fortunately, most STDs are curable, especially those due to fungal and bacterial infections. one can treat incurable STDs using the available medications to alleviate the symptoms and reduce their severity.

One can transmit STDs through body fluids like semen, blood, vaginal fluids, pre-cum, and breast milk.

In this article, you learn about STDs that can pass through breast milk and those that cannot, as well as how to avoid giving these infections to your unborn and young child. But before that, let’s look at some common signs and symptoms of STDs.

Common symptoms of STDs

Most STIs don’t show symptoms, and that’s why they are common; they rapidly spread without the knowledge of those spreading them. Though they take some time, some of them eventually develop symptoms which include:

• Rashes
• Itchy genitals or anus
• Warts on genitals or anus
• Pain when urinating 
• Painful bowel movement
• Abnormal vaginal, penile, or anal discharge
• Burning sensation when urinating
• Lumps around the genitals or anus
• Heavy vaginal bleeding after sex or between the periods
• Blisters that form sores around the genitals or anus
• Warts in the throat or mouth
• Painful and swollen testicles
• Unusual vaginal odor
• Painful sexual intercourse
• Fever 
• Sore throat
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Headache
• Weight loss
• Joint pain

Breastfeeding and STDs

Some STDs can impact your unborn and newborns badly, especially if you don’t treat them in time. Some effects of leaving STDs untreated during pregnancy on infants are premature birth, stillbirths, less-weight children, and blindness. 

Besides these effects, you can transmit your infections to your baby. While some STDs like syphilis can implant themselves in the placenta and infect your child, you can transmit some, like HIV, through the birth canal during delivery and breastfeeding. So, to answer the question of what STDs can be passed through breast milk, read on.

What STDs can be passed through breast milk?

The most common way to transmit STDs is through sexual contact, but there are other ways you can transmit these infections to your loved ones. Some STDs like herpes develop blisters that rupture to form sores which, when you come into contact with, you can get the infections Therefore, skin-to-skin contact is another way to transmit some STDs.

You can also contract these diseases by coming into contact with infected objects. You should therefore be vigilant when sharing things with an infected person. You can also transmit other STDs by breastfeeding your child, but what STDs can be passed through breast milk?

HIV/AIDS

Human immunodeficiency virus is a common STD that has terrorized people since the 1980s. Still, due to the advancement of technology in the health sector, its transmission has drastically dropped, especially mother-to-child transmission. However, HIV/AIDS prevalence is till high in developing countries.

HIV infection is one of the STDs that passes through all body fluids, making it the most common STD, and therefore a mother can transmit it to her child through breast milk, especially when her viral load is high. This is why breastfeeding mothers are usually placed on HIV therapy to suppress the virus, making them undetectable, which reduces the chances of transmission significantly.

But this does not mean that the chances of transmission are zero. You may have bleeding nipples due to a cut or child bite, which can make you transmit the infection through blood.

Most developing counties like the USA do not recommend breasting for HIV-positive mothers. Instead, they advise bottle feeding with or without undetectable viral load. But, this is not practical in developing countries as bottle feeding is costly; this is why mother-to-child transmission is still high in these areas.

According to the international guidelines on infant feeding, you should either breastfeed or bottle-feed but do not mix them. Mixing the two, called supplemental feeding, is risky and should be avoided. HIV is incurable, and you should not put your child in danger by breastfeeding, even if your viral load is low.

This is just one answer to the question of what STDs can be passed through breast milk, but are there other STDs that can be passed through breast milk? Read on to learn more.

STDs that can pass through breastfeeding but not breast milk

Some STDs cannot pass via breast milk, and you cannot transmit them to your child. However, some cannot be transmitted through breast milk, but you can transmit them when breastfeeding because they can pass through other body fluids like blood. They include:

Herpes simplex virus

Herpes simplex virus is also another common STD. There are two types of this virus; herpes simplex virus types one and types 2, causing cold sores and genital herpes, respectively. Both infections form painful fluid-filled blisters that burst into sores after a few days.

Genital herpes mainly affects the genitals, and you cannot pass it to your child through breastfeeding. Cold sores or oral herpes mainly affect the mouth but can also affect other body parts, including the nipples. While you cannot transmit oral herpes through breast milk, you can transmit it when you have open sores in your nipples and your child comes into contact with the sores.

So in your quest to know what STDs can be passed through breast milk, you should understand that herpes cannot pass through breast milk but can pass through breastfeeding.

For this reason, doctors advise you to bottle-feed or use a breast pump when breastfeeding while ensuring it doesn’t come into contact with the open sores. You can, however, breastfeed after the sores have healed or when you don’t have an outbreak of herpes since it is an incurable viral infection. Still, you can suppress them using antiviral medications.

But, you should note that you can pass genital herpes to your child during delivery through the birth canal, and it is hazardous because you can pass it whether you are symptomatic or asymptomatic. This can lead to complications for the child in their eyes, skin, central nervous system, mouth, or internal organs, leading to death.

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a viral infection affecting the liver and causing inflammation. It is a curable disease that passes from one person to another via blood. To answer your question about what STDs can be passed through breast milk, you cannot pass hepatitis C as it only passes via blood.

But you can still pass it through breastfeeding though the chances are low. There is inadequate research on whether hepatitis C can pass through either breastfeeding or breast milk, as doctors recommend breastfeeding. Still, you should first do consultations with your healthcare provider.

But you can transmit this infection to your child during delivery through the birth canal. No vaccine for children can prevent them from contracting hepatitis C, and you should get treatment before delivery. Contacting your child with hepatitis C infection at birth can pose serious problems because this infection affects the liver.

Syphilis

Syphilis is a bacterium infection caused by Treponema pallidum that forms sores after infection- primary syphilis. These sores appear primarily in the genitals but can also appear on the mouth, fingers, tongue, lips, anus, tonsils, breasts, and nipples. You can contract syphilis when you have contact with these sores. 

Syphilis can affect the baby in the womb by attaching itself to the placenta, which can cause severe complications like miscarriage or a stillborn baby. If you don’t treat your child for syphilis, they can develop severe problems in their internal organs like the brain, skin, eyes, heart, ears, bones, and teeth, and sometimes it can even lead to death.

You can also transmit syphilis to your baby during delivery through the birth canal. A child born with syphilis or congenital syphilis can pose severe health problems like deformed teeth and bones, hearing loss, neurological problems, and blindness later in life.

Syphilis is transmitted only through semen, blood, and vaginal fluids; therefore, you cannot transmit it through breast milk. This answers the question of what STDs can be passed through breast milk.

However, you can pass syphilis to your child through breastfeeding when you have open sores due to Treponema pallidum infection in your nipples or breast. You should, therefore, not breastfeed when having these sores.

STDs that cannot pass through both breastfeeding and breast milk

After answering the question of what STDs can be passed through breast milk, it is also essential to look at other STDs that you can pass to your child but not through either breast milk or breastfeeding.

Some STDs can pass from mother to child during pregnancy by implanting themselves into the placenta, the birth canal during delivery, or both. But, they cannot pass through breastfeeding and breast milk because they are transmissible by both contact and breast milk.

Below are some STDs you can pass to your child through other means than breast milk and breastfeeding.

Chlamydia

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial infection. Chlamydia trachomatis is the bacterium causing this common infection. Chlamydia affects both men and women; in most cases, it doesn’t show symptoms, but when it does, it can cause burning urination, bleeding after sex, and abnormal vaginal discharge in women.

Chlamydia is transmitted through oral, vaginal, or anal sex, and you can pass it via vagina fluid or semen. Chlamydia can cause severe complications in women, especially if not treated in time, as it can spread to reproductive organs like the uterus, ovary, and fallopian tube.

When this happens, it can cause permanent damage to these organs, causing infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease. Having chlamydia also increases your chances of miscarriage and premature birth, so seeking medical attention should be your priority if you have this infection.

You can pass chlamydia infection to your child during birth through the birth canal, and when you do, your child may develop eye infections and pneumonia. You can give medications to prevent gonorrhea eye infection to your baby as it also helps with a chlamydia eye infection.

Because chlamydia passes neither breastfeeding nor breast milk, it’s okay to breastfeed your baby.

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection after chlamydia. The bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae is what causes it, and it affects both genders. Just like other STDs, it mainly affects adolescents and young adults who are sexually active.

Gonorrhea can be transmitted through oral, vaginal, or anal sex. It affects the genitals, anus, mouth, and throat. You can get it when semen, pre-cum, or vaginal fluids enters the anus, genitals, or mouth. But, it can pass even without penetrative sexual intercourse.

In short, gonorrhea does not spread via breast milk or breastfeeding, which comprehensively answers this disturbing question, what STDs can be passed through breast milk?

Gonorrhea has severe complications in women, especially if you leave it untreated for some time. Just like chlamydia, it can spread to the reproductive organs and effects them, which can cause scarring in these organs, like the fallopian tube.

This can cause scarring in the fallopian tube, leading to permanent damage blocking the movement of sperm and ovary, leading to infertility. It can also cause miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.

Women cannot pass gonorrhea to their babies through breastfeeding. However, they can during delivery through the birth canal, which can cause health problems to the babies, like eye infections which can lead to blindness. They are also likely to develop joint disorders.

To avoid these health problems for your child, give your child medications at birth to prevent eye infections. You can consult your doctor regarding these medications. But before it reaches this stage, cure your gonorrhea with antibiotics and medications to avoid passing it to your baby.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease that affects the liver, and it is due to the hepatitis B virus. Usually, it is acute and goes away on its own, but in some people, it can be chronic and lead to serious liver problems like liver cancer and cirrhosis. It can continuously attack the liver causing inflammation and irreversible liver damage.

Some people experience asymptomatic hepatitis and can transmit it to others without knowing. Most infections of hepatitis B occur in childhood and infancy because most mothers with HBV can pass it to their babies at birth.

Hepatitis B is spread via body fluids like semen, vaginal secretion, saliva, and amniotic fluid. You can transmit it through sexual intercourse, at birth, unsafe tattoo techniques, sharing of piercing objects like needles and syringes, and personal items like toothbrushes.

Hepatitis B is incurable, but there are vaccines to prevent its infection. There are also antiviral medications to alleviate its symptoms and prevent severe damage to the liver, which can lead to liver implant.

You cannot pass HBV to your child through breast milk, which answers the question of what STDs can be passed through breast milk.

Human papillomavirus

Human papillomavirus is a virus infection that causes skin growth. There are many types of HPV infection, with some causing warts while others are varieties of cancer though most don’t lead to cancer. Mostly the varieties that cause cancer are genital HPV which usually affects the lower part of the uterus. They can also lead to other types of cancers like cancer of the anus, vagina, penis, vulva, and back of the throat.

HPV is primarily transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, but you can transmit genital HPV through sexual intercourse, vaginal and anal, and any other genital contact. In rare cases, pregnant women having HPV infection with genital warts can transmit the infection to their babies, which can cause a noncancerous growth in their larynx.

In most cases, pregnant women who contract HPV infection have delayed treatment, which can lead to premature labor. Due to pregnancy hormones, genital warts can grow larger and lead to obstruction of the birth canal, and in such scenarios, your doctor may recommend you give birth through cesarean section.

You cannot transmit HPV via body fluids, so breastfeeding is safe even if you have this infection.

Trichomoniasis

Trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by a trichomonas vaginalis parasite. It affects both men and women and develops in the lower genital tract, including the vulva, vagina, cervix, and urethra in women. One can pass trichomoniasis infection to the other through vaginal, oral, or anal sex via vaginal fluid, semen, or pre-semen.

When you leave trichomoniasis untreated for a period, the infection can spread to the fallopian tube, which can cause permanent damage leading to miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. The damage can hinder the movement of sperm to the uterus, thus preventing fertilization of the ovary thus leading to infertility.

Women having trichomoniasis can give birth to babies with low weight and prematurely give birth. You cannot pass trichomoniasis through breast milk, so breastfeeding is safe.

However, you should not breastfeed when undergoing trichomoniasis treatment, especially the metronidazole treatment, for about 24 hours after finishing your doses. But if you are under tinidazole treatment, you should not breastfeed for about three days after your dose.

You should, however, note that you can transmit this infection to your baby during birth. 

Now that you know what STDs can be passed through breast milk let’s look at some of the harmful effects of passing these infections to your baby.

Harmful effects of passing an STD to your baby

Passing STDs to your baby can cause many effects depending on the STD, but the common effects are low birth weight and stillbirth. It is, therefore, essential to know your to regularly go for STD testing because most of these STIs are asymptomatic, and without screening, you can pass them to your baby even without knowing.

If you are positive for any of the STDs, you should get proper treatment and guidance from your doctor to ensure you don’t pass the infection to your baby; otherwise, you may risk your baby having the following:

• Brain damage
• Blindness
• Acute hepatitis
• Deafness
• Pneumonia
• Meningitis
• Blood’s infection
• Chronic liver disease
• Liver cirrhosis
• Lack of coordination in the movement of the body parts

Conclusion

Sexually transmitted infections are widespread conditions that primarily affect sexually active people of childbearing age. They affect both men and women, but the latter should be extra careful because they can pass these infections to their unborn and young babies.

They can pass them through delivery, breastfeeding, or while still in the womb. HIV is the only STI that can pass through breast milk; therefore, you should not breastfeed when positive. You can pass other STDs like syphilis and herpes through breastfeeding, but only when you have open sores.

Nevertheless, you should undergo regular STD testing if you are sexually active and have multiple sexual partners.