CHICAGO – Women with recurrent pelvic inflammatory disease are significantly more likely to report infertility and chronic pelvic pain long term than are those without recurrent PID, according to a secondary analysis of the PEACH study.
Rates of pregnancy (odds ratio, 1.0) and live births (OR, 0.7) were similar at 84 months after adjustment for age, race, parity, prior history of PID, and gonorrhea and chlamydia infection among 831 women with mild to moderate PID enrolled in the PID Evaluation and Clinical Health (PEACH) study. Women with recurrent PID, however, were 1.8 times more likely to report infertility and 4.2 times more likely to report chronic pelvic pain than were those without recurrent episodes of PID, lead author Dr. Maria Trent said at the meeting.
Women with a subsequent sexually transmitted infection (STI) of the lower genital tract were 2.3 times more likely to have chronic pelvic pain than were those without an STI, but not more likely to have infertility, said Dr. Trent, director of interdisciplinary education at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.
She explained that much of the current knowledge of the longitudinal outcomes of women with PID has been driven by research on a Scandinavian cohort of PID inpatients enrolled between 1960 and 1984. Since that time, however, there has been a shift in biological organisms causing PID and in clinical management to the outpatient setting. Previously, 60% of patients with PID had noncoccal or chlamydial disease, whereas newer data demonstrate that as few as 30% of PID patients have noncoccal or chlamydial disease and that newer organisms such as Mycoplasma genitalium are emerging.
In the main PEACH study analysis, there was no difference in outcomes among the 831 women, aged 14–38 years, randomized to inpatient treatment initially using intravenous cefoxitin and doxycycline, or outpatient treatment with a single intramuscular injection of cefoxitin and oral doxycycline (Obstet. Gynecol. 2005;106:573–80). Participants were primarily African American (74.5%), uninsured (43.8%) or on public insurance (33.5%), and had regular access to care (65%).
At 84 months, 21% of women reported recurrent PID, 19% were categorized as infertile, 43% reported chronic pelvic pain, 57% became pregnant, and 42% had a live birth. Among the 209 adolescents, 71% had a pregnancy, 51% had a live birth, 18% were characterized as infertile, and 39% had chronic pelvic pain.
Dr. Maria Trent and her associates said they had no relevant financial disclosures.