Occurrence of Mycoplasma genitalium in fertile and infertile women.

Objective: To determine the frequency of occurrence of Mycoplasma genitalium in the reproductive organs of infertile women in comparison with a control group of healthy, fertile women.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Gynecology Clinic at the 2nd Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Wroclaw Medical University, Poland.

Patient(s): The study included 51 patients with primary infertility (24 women with idiopathic infertility) and 23 women with proven fertility.

Intervention(s): Cervical smear and smear from the peritoneal cavity, performed during laparoscopy.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Presence of the genetic material of M. genitalium in the collected material analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Result(s): M. genitalium was found in the cervical canal of 19.6% of all infertile patients and in 4.4% of fertile patients. In addition, the pathogen was discovered in the cervical canal of 29% patients with unexplained (idiopathic) infertility, which in comparison with the fertile group was a statistically significant difference. In the abdominal cavity, M. genitalium was found in 5.8% of patients from the infertile group (in 8.4% patients with idiopathic infertility), whereas it was not detected in the material obtained from the studied fertile patients.

Conclusion(s): The results obtained may suggest that M. genitalium is a species having an impact on impaired fertility in women.