Pelvic inflammatory disease associated with Chlamydia trachomatis but not Mycoplasma genitalium in New Zealand

Abstract

Background There is a paucity of studies looking at associations between Mycoplasma genitalium and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of M. genitalium in women attending a sexual health service in New Zealand and secondly to examine for an association of M. genitalium with PID.

Methods: Women consecutively attending the service for a sexual health screen (Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Trichomonas vaginalis) were recruited to establish a baseline prevalence of M. genitalium. An extra cervical swab was taken for the detection of M. genitalium. Recruitment of additional women with a clinical diagnosis of PID continued until a sufficient sample size was obtained to examine the association of PID with M. genitalium. Women in the baseline sample without PID were used as the control group.

Results: The control group included 250 women, with M. genitalium diagnosed in 8.7% (95% CI 5.8-12.9%) and C. trachomatis in 9.9% (95% CI 6.8-14.2%). Ninety-one women were recruited with PID; M. genitalium was diagnosed in 9.9% (95% CI 5.3-17.7%) and C. trachomatis in 27.5% (95% CI 19.4-37.4%). Multivariate analysis using clinically relevant variables showed that a diagnosis of C. trachomatis (OR 2.44, 95% CI 1.24-4.81) but not M. genitalium (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.38-2.20) was significantly associated with a PID diagnosis.

Conclusions: M. genitalium was almost as commonly diagnosed as C. trachomatis in this population. C. trachomatis was the only infection that was significantly associated with PID.