Hormonal contraception and pelvic inflammatory disease.

Estrogen-progestogen contraception (OC) is significantly associated with a high prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in the lower genital tracts of young women. In contrast, pelvic inflammatory disease is less frequent and is associated with milder pelvic lesions in OC users than in non-users. A recent study suggests that OC use can be associated with silent endometritis and salpingitis. The usual clinical, biological and laparoscopic signs of acute and chronic pelvic inflammatory disease are described. As shown tby several cost-benefit analyses, C. trachomatis detection in family planning centers is cost-effective and the eradication of bacteria is obtained in 90% of cases by a new treatment: azithromycin (1 g for 1 day). Although the data clearly show that C. trachomatis screening is cost-effective, selection of the diagnostic laboratory tests used in such screening programs should be carefully evaluated relative to cost, feasibility, specificity and sensitivity, and should be adapted to the presumed prevalence in screened populations. A systematic screening is indicated in populations susceptible to a prevalence of 5% or more.