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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. HIV and STIs
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1539186
This article is part of the Research Topic Reproductive Infectious Diseases: Matters Across the Spectrum of Reproductive Health View all articles

Trends in infections detected in women with cervicitis over a decade

Provisionally accepted
Lenka A Vodstrcil Lenka A Vodstrcil 1,2,3*Erica Plummer Erica Plummer 1,2Thuy Vy Nguyen Thuy Vy Nguyen 1,2Christopher Fairley Christopher Fairley 1,2Eric P.F. Chow Eric P.F. Chow 1,2,3Tiffany Phillips Tiffany Phillips 1,2Catriona S Bradshaw Catriona S Bradshaw 1,2,3
  • 1 Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  • 2 Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • 3 The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: There is a growing body of evidence that in the absence of Chlamydia trachomatis and/or Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium and bacterial vaginosis (BV) are associated with cervicitis. We aimed to describe infections detected among cervicitis cases over a decade and establish how commonly M. genitalium and BV were detected among nonchlamydial/non-gonococcal cases to inform testing and treatment practices. Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-series to determine the number of cervicitis cases diagnosed with genital infections (C. trachomatis, N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium and BV) among women attending the largest public sexual health service in Australia from 2011-2021. We determined the proportion of cervicitis cases with one or more genital infections detected, and trends in testing and detection of each infection over time.Results: Over a decade 813 cervicitis cases were diagnosed; 421 (52%, 95%CI:48.3%-55.3%) had no infection detected; 226/729 (31%, 95%CI:28%-35%) had BV, 163/809 (20%, 95%CI:17%-23%) C. trachomatis, 48/747 (6%, 95%CI:5%-8%) M. genitalium, and 13/793 (2%, 95%CI:1%-3%) N. gonorrhoeae. Of the 665 (81.8%) cases tested for all four infections, 268 (40.3%) had one infection and 73 (11.0%) had >1 infection detected. Of the 517/665 (77.7%) non-chlamydial/non-gonococcal cases, 164 (31.7%) had BV and 16 (3.1%) had M. genitalium as the sole infections detected; a further 13 cases (2.5%) were co-infected with BV and M. genitalium. The proportion of cases tested for BV (90%) did not change overtime, but detection increased from 32% to 45% (Ptrend<0.001). The proportion of cases tested for M. genitalium increased from 84% in 2011 to 96% in 2019 (Ptrend=0.006), with M. genitalium detection in cervicitis increasing from 3% to 7% (Ptrend=0.046).Conclusion: In our study population, chlamydia or gonorrhoea were not detected in ~75% of cervicitis cases; 1 in 3 of these cases had BV and/or M. genitalium, and both increased in prevalence over time. These data highlight the need for clinicians to consider BV and M. genitalium when assessing and managing cervicitis.

    Keywords: cervicitis, sexually transmitted infections, Mycoplasma genitalium, bacterial vaginosis, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae

    Received: 03 Dec 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Vodstrcil, Plummer, Nguyen, Fairley, Chow, Phillips and Bradshaw. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lenka A Vodstrcil, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

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