A prospective study of Chlamydia trachomatis infection following legal abortion

In a prospective study, 288 women were tested for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) in the cervix prior to legal abortion. In the control group (n = 259), CT culturing was carried out only when postoperative infection was suspected. CT was isolated in 14.2% of asymptomatic women. These patients were treated preoperatively with Doxycycline. In this group, no cases of postoperative infection were detected. Among those cases where CT was not detected, 4.9% contracted the infection, while in the control group the rate of infection was 9.7%. In the control group all the infections due to CT gave late symptoms after the operation (1-4 weeks).