M. genitalium ups risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, cervicitis

(HealthDay) -- Infection with Mycoplasma genitalium (M. genitalium) is an independent and strong risk factor for both cervicitis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), according to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Carina Bjartling, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Skane in Malmö, Sweden, and colleagues studied 5,519 women in a cross-sectional case-control study conducted in an outpatient gynecology center.

The researchers found that, among the women tested, the prevalence of M. genitalium was 2.1 percent and the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) was 2.8 percent. In an analysis of 679 women, both PID and cervicitis were each independently associated with M. genitalium (odds ratios [ORs], 9.00 [95 percent confidence interval (CI), 1.62 to 49.89] and 3.80 [95 percent CI, 2.06 to 7.03], respectively). There was a significantly higher frequency of both PID (18.3 versus 4.9 percent) and cervicitis (33.4 versus 22.3 percent) in women with C. trachomatis than in women with M. genitalium.

"M. genitalium was an independent and strong risk factor for both cervicitis and PID, although, compared to C. trachomatis, clinical manifestations were less frequent," the authors write.