Characteristics of women at low risk of STI presenting with pelvic inflammatory disease.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the background and reproductive history of women who are considered at low risk of sexually transmitted infection (STI) presenting with acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

METHODS: Case-control study, investigating 51 women admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of acute PID and 50 healthy women attending for routine gynecological checkup.

RESULTS: Women with PID were older (p = 0.003) and more often unemployed (p = 0.008), and had a lower educational level (p = 0.000003). Healthy women reported more regular routine attendance to gynecologists (p = 0.0008) and were less often smokers (p = 0.0009). There was no difference between groups regarding age at first sexual intercourse, number of sex partners during life, duration of current sexual partnership, and frequency of sexual intercourse, total number of deliveries, spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancies and outcome of last pregnancy. The number of induced abortions was significantly higher in the PID group (p = 0.0004). There were no differences between the groups with regard to previous episodes of PID. Healthy controls more often reported a history of STI (p = 0.00007). IUD was the most commonly reported current contraceptive method in both groups, and there was no difference in contraceptive practices between groups.

CONCLUSION: Women with PID differed from healthy controls only with regard to socio-demographic characteristics and not with regard to common risk factors for PID.