Toxoplasmosis - has anyone been tested after eating undercooked meat during pregnancy?

[Scrabblewhizz]

I have been super careful throughout my short (9 weeks) pregnancy so far to only eat the foods we are allowed to - to the point of cutting out more than I need to just to be on the safe side, and charring all meat!

Then, tonight, for a special occassion, went to a posh restaurant - crossed off the scallops, pate, goats cheese, lamb (which was rare) etc... and opted for a "safe" pork dish - cause pork is always well cooked, isn't it???

I don't usually eat pork as I'd normally go for rare lamb and steak, so I didn't know what rare pork would taste like - I just knew it was delicious and juicy! Right at the very end of my meal, I noticed that actually, the pork was pink and I could see blood in it. Thinking it must be the red cabbage contaminating my pork, I checked with the waitress, and was told "Oh yes, we serve our pork rare as it is good quality pork - don't worry it's totally safe!"

I've googled obsessively, and good quality outdoor reared pork has the highest toxoplasmosis risk of most meats from what I can work out. My risk of toxoplasmosis (and god knows what else) is likely to be pretty high!

My plan (after a good 3 hour Dr Google consultation) is to get a toxoplasmosis test next week (to see if I am already immune) and then keep testing for a couple of months to see if my levels of the antibody change indicating a current infection.

So - my questions are...

1. Can anyone knowledgeable reassure me on eating undercooked pork (unlikely, but I'm awake at 2:30am so worth a shot!)
2. Has anyone gone through antenatal toxoplasmosis testing. If so, how was it, and how did you convince your midwife that you needed it?

hi scrabble no words of wisdom but awake and feel the panic as i have accidentaly had a few pink things. sounds like you have a plan to ease your mind. let us know how you get on.

I'm not sure about pork but I would say don't panic too much (hard I know!) if you are used to eating rare meat usually then at some point you have probably been exposed and built up some antibodies which I think (someone may correct me though) means that you & baby will have some immunity if exposed again..

I'm abroad and we have a toxo test as standard, I already had antibodies in my system and doc said therefore I didnt need to be too cautious with regards further exposure..

Also I know the current guidelines say that you can eat rare steak/lamb etc as long as it has been cooked on the outside so if the pork was too that will prov make it safer!

Really dOnt panic too much, people eat all sorts when preggers esp in early days When might not even realise and they are fine!

I live overeas too and had the test as standard - and had the antibodies in my system so could carry on with the very rare meat I enjoyed. I would hazard a guess that if you usually eat you meat rare, there's a fair chance you've already got the antibodies in your system.

I'm sure you'll be fine - and stay away from Dr Google

Honestly, I think you're worrying too much. You have another 31 weeks of this and if you stay with these anxiety levels you'll be a nervous wreck. The chances are very high that you've already been exposed. For what it's worth, you could have had the scallops as cooked seafood is fine, and goats cheese is fine too. Rare steak is fine as long as the outside is properly seared. I know it's natural to worry, but sometimes I think the food "rules" do more harm than good as they create panic.

Thanks for the reassurance. It is good to hear encouragement!

I'm still feeling pretty anxious - I'm totally kicking myself for not checking - I mean who ever heard of undercooked pork being served as standard. Would anyone else have thought to check that pork is served welldone?

I now feel that if the pregancy does progress, i'm going to feel so anxious the whole time that I've put some kind of nasty infection/toxin/virus into my body. I can get tested for toxoplasmosis (I think), but not the other random stuff that is probably in raw pork!

I'm overseas too and agree with the other posters. The test is a quick blood test and the results come back really quickly saying if you have antibodies (immune) or not. If you did this test now, a positive test would mean you were either exposed before pregnancy or during pregnancy - so a positive test would not be reassuring, only a negative would be. Normally, the infected person would experience flu-like symptoms within a few weeks after infection, although rarely it can be symptom-free.

I have cats, eat tons of undercooked beef and charcuterie....and I was NOT immune. Cue blood tests every month of my pregnancy...which I now think caused me more stress than anything. I think for a single exposure risk (why were they serving it rare???? boggles the mind - there are other parasites in pork too!) you would have to be EXTREMELY unlucky to have contracted anything. Temperatures of +65oC or freezing are enough to kill the toxo parasite btw.

What would I do?....probably take the test once for peace of mind -

If the restaurant was a good one, there's less likely to be an issue.

I'm 37+5 in France and have had a toxo test every month - everyone does here unless your first one says you're immune. Tbh even my friend who has loads of pets and does loads of gardening wasn't immune, and I've eaten v rare meat for years and wasn't, so that's no indicator.

Rest assured that toxo is v rare though. Here, they recommend not eating salad in restaurants (as you don't know how it's been washed), ditto fresh fruit, and that all meat should be cooked right through. This has caused some raised eyebrows from snobby French waiters!

Just ask your mw for a test and say you're worried. It's very unlikely that you've caught anything from the pork as it was from a reputable place, but it should put your mind at rest. And if there was anything dodgy you can quickly be treated.

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping from a single exposure, it is unlikely that I'll have contracted it, but free range, happy piggies has lots of access to all the wild cats which roam the area, so unfortunately, I think its quite likely I will have picked it up. My main hope is that the meat was medium (not rare), so it is possible that the toxo was killed, or at least some of it in the cooking.

I'm going to get the test - and have also decided to speak to the restaurant today to ask them lots of questions about the safety of their meat, and the liklihood of toxo. I wonder if the lamb/steak guidelines saying you can eat slightly rare meat does apply to pork? That would be a small comfort.

Still can't believe anywhere serves UNDERCOOKED PORK!!!!!! Grrrr!

if you're calling the restaurant ask if they freeze their meat. Freezing for long enough kills the toxo parasite. I freaked because i ate rare venison at christmas and did the same as you - endless googling and came to same conclusion pork is the worst but venison isn't great either and rarely listed in books as a meat to avoid eating rare. I got fed up with people saying 'you're probably immune, most people are'. Complete bollocks. Get tested, if you want to check right now if you're immune you may have a fight to get that done under the NHS, as if the test comes back negative you will still need a test after 21 days exposure to see if you have a new infection so first test waste of resources unless it shows you are immune and statistically it is far more likely you are not immune. My doctor agreed to me being tested 21 days after exposure to see if i had an infection, then they go from there. If you have they will test again to see if its current or old. Mine came back negative to current infection.

what guidelines say you can eat undercoooked lamb/steak? The old NHS page has been updated as their advice was contradictory and misleading (one page said rare meat ok, another said it was a risk)- i complained to the website editor and they took my complaint seriously- they are looking into the issue of toxoplasmosis again.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/foods-to-avoid-pregnant.aspx

Toxoplasmosis lives inside the meat, cooking the outside of meat to seal it kills surface germs like salmonella, it does nothing to kill the toxoplasmosis parasites. That said, please try to calm down- not easy I know. Toxoplasmosis should be taken seriously by all pregnant women but it is very hard to catch it. You are highly unlikely to have caught it.

i think it just shows that they will listen when people question dubious or misleading online advice (to be fair there are several places on NHS websites where you can read up on food and seems they have different editorial teams following different guidance) . The ignored my online comment and the other person's on the same issue so I emailed the editor directly and she got back to me to say they would look into it. Several weeks went by and she emailed to say what had happened- which you can see on the updated page linked above. I (and all other pregnant women) just want consistent reliable guidance, we don't want to read one thing on one NHS website and then see something else on another page. It infuriated me!

Thanks blackcats for your thoughts.

In case anyone's interested, I went back to the restaurant, and asked how they had cooked the meat. The meat had been frozen before hand (which is good!), and it was then slow cooked for three hours and should have hit a temperature of 65 degrees celsius during that time. The chef appeared really knowledgeable and reassured me that the cooking method means there isn't any danger. Because I'm me, I will continue to worry, and am hoping to get tested anyway, but feel slightly better.

Just in case, does anyone know if pork can still be bloody/pink if it has been cooked to 65 degrees? Or would the colour suggest it didn't hit that temperature? The fact that it was frozen would suggest that it should be OK - although, again, god knows what other bugs there are in pork that could do damage!

What a worry - from now on, in this (if it keeps going) and if I was lucky enough to have any subsequent pregnancies, I'm going to tell every chef at every restaurant I want well cooked well washed food, and not be shy about asking for things to be cooked for longer. In fact, after this, I'm tempted to live on porridge, boiling soup, pealed fruit and plain pasta - that has to be safe, right???! :)

Perfectly safe, you'll just end up with malnutrition problems instead

the fact that the meat was frozen for the restaurant means it would almost certainly have been frozen for long enough to kill the toxo parasite (i.e they weren't a home cook who just bunged it in their freezer overnight then defrosted it again). I'd say you can breathe a sigh of relief and relax about that incident. The risk was so small anyway but i know how worrying it is.

Technically the advice is that to kill most forms of food bacteria (but not all , e.g bacillus cereus can't be killed by heat but doesn't affect meat so not relevant) you cook meat until the core temp is 75 Celsius or 70c for at least 2 minutes. Obviously some meats are served rare (or even raw!) and so never reach this temp and cause no problems for most people. Also most forms of common food poisoning will make you sick but are very unlikely to have any affect on your growing baby, the obvious exceptions being toxoplasmosis and listeria.

Hi everyone

Sorry to hijack the thread. I am getting tested for toxoplasmosis antibodies in a couple of weeks' time, because I had a lot of contact with our dying (and therefore not very clean) cat, just before I found out I was pregnant.

I am really hoping that I was already immune due to growing up with cats and so will not have caught anything from her at that point.

If I test positive for toxoplasmosis antibodies, does anyone know whether they will be able to tell if these are from previous immunity, or recent exposure?

thanks

thanks issima - are you going to ask to get tested do you think?

mine had definitely caught mice etc in the past but not for a long time.

When I had the toxo test with latest pregnancy it came up that I had antibodies but the doctor said these were from a previous infection not a recent one..he didn't elaborate on how he could tell this (didn't think to ask but this thread had made me curious!) so I guess they can tell somehow.

Fwiw I ate rare meat, sushi , sashimi, cured meats and basically pretty much everything except pâté and blue cheese with both my pregnancies and have two perfectly healthy munchkins to show for it so try not to worry too much (I realise easier said than done!)

Just wanted to jump on and say that I got tested for toxo along with other infections (TORCH blood test) due to a possible abnormality being detected on my 20 week scan. The nurse who I spoke to the whole time said that they would compare my blood test at 20 weeks with my bloods they took at my booking appointment and cross check antibody levels this way. Ultimately they were able to tell me that I'd had no infections during pregnancy and also that I hadn't had some of the infections, including toxo, before I'd gotten pregnant - just in case that helps anyone!