Pelvic inflammatory disease: improving awareness, prevention, and treatment

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a common disorder of the reproductive tract that is frequently misdiagnosed and inadequately treated. PID and its complications, such as infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain, are preventable by screening asymptomatic patients for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and promptly treating individuals with STIs and PID.

The rates of adverse outcomes in women with PID are high and disproportionately affect young minority women. There are key opportunities for prevention including improving provider adherence with national screening guidelines for STIs and PID treatment recommendations and patient medication adherence. Nearly half of all eligible women are not screened for STIs according to national quality standards, which may increase the risk of both acute and subclinical PID. Moreover, in clinical practice, providers poorly adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for treatment of PID. Additionally, patients with PID struggle to adhere to the current management strategies in the outpatient setting.

Novel evidence-based clinical and public health interventions to further reduce the rates of PID and to improve outcomes for affected women are warranted. We propose potential cost-effective approaches that could be employed in real-world settings.