Uterine toxoplasma infections and repeated abortions

Serologic testing for Toxoplasma antibodies (dye test, indirect fluorescent antibody test on serum, and complement-fixation test) was done in 96 women with habitual abortions and 61 women with sporadic abortions. In 61 of these women, endometrial biopsies were examined for content of T. gondii (animal inoculation procedures, immunofluorescence microscopy). Control subjects were 59 women with no spontaneous abortions. In seven patients (one control patient and six with habitual abortion), tachyzoites of T. gondii were observed in repeated biopsies from the endometrium and in menstrual blood by the immunofluorescence method. In no case, however, could T. gondii be isolated from the endometrium by inoculations. Moreover, the serologic results obtained among the patients with habitual abortion did not differ significantly from those obtained among the ones with sporadic abortion or among the control subjects. Five of the women with Toxoplasma-positive endometrium were serologically negative. Treatment of the Toxoplasma-positive women with antitoxoplasma drugs led to removal of parasites from the endometrium. T. gondii was not observed in the semen of the husbands.