[Complications of sexually transmitted diseases: clinical course and treatment]

Sexually transmitted infectious agents cause a wide array of complications in the short-, medium-, and long-term, especially among women. Specifically, infection with these agents can result in sterility, infertility, genital neoplasia, pre-term delivery, and foetal/neonatal pathologies, and the agents most commonly associated with these complications are: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, anaerobic bacteria, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Gardnerella vaginalis and human papilloma virus (HPV), which is involved in the etiology of squamous genital carcinomas. This report describes several of the mechanisms involved in the damage to genital and reproductive organs, focussing on those mechanisms involved in the damage caused by delayed autoimmune response.