Female infertility associated to chlamydia trachomatis infection

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most common agent of bacterial sexually transmitted infections, both in developed and developing countries. It clearly constitutes a major burden on public health. Screening programs and current research are mainly focused on decreasing the high incidence of chlamydial infections as well as their associated morbidity.The greater clinical impact of CT infections occurs in women of reproductive age. Acute CT infections are often associated to urethritis, mucopurulent cervicitis, endometritis, salpingitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). A vast proportion of CT infections are likely underestimated because of their asymptomatic clinical course. This leads to repeat and chronic infections, which have deleterious impact on the female reproductive health. Among the complications of the CT chronic infections are PID, ectopic pregnancy, preterm birth, tubal obstruction and female infertility, which are of great interest in the reproduction field.