OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical presentation of different gynecologic infections among Indian women. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 257 women that included clinical, cytologic, colposcopic, and microbiologic screening for various gynecologic infections. RESULTS: Human papillomavirus (HPV) was the leading infection, affecting 127 (49.4) women; however, overt warts were only seen in seven (2.7) patients. Women infected with HPV had a 60.3-fold higher risk of developing a bleeding ectopia compared to those with other infections; women with an unhealthy cervix and cervical ectopias also had an increased risk of HPV infection (7.6- and 2.8-fold, respectively). Bacterial vaginosis, detected in 33.5 of the women studied, had an increased risk of bleeding ectopia (9.3-fold), cervical ectopia (3.1-fold), cervicitis (2.9-fold), vaginitis (6.9-fold), and cervical hypertrophy (2.1-fold). Chlamydial infection, detected in 23.3 of the patient population, was associated with an eightfold increase in the risk of an unhealthy cervix and a fourfold increase in risk of a hypertrophied cervix. Immunoglobulin-A antibodies to the herpes simplex virus were detected in 53 (20.6) women. More than half (55.2) of the women had two or more infections, and the mean delay of seeking medical treatment was 7-13 months. CONCLUSION: The specific finding of bleeding cervices was associated with HPV and bacterial vaginosis, hypertrophied cervices with chlamydia and bacterial vaginosis, and unhealthy cervices with chlamydia and HPV infections.
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