Infertility and chlamydial infection

The prevalence of humoral IgG and IgM antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis was determined in 105 infertile women who underwent laparoscopy and/or laparatomy, and 90 pregnant women without any known fertility problems (control group). For chlamydial culture, cervical and urethral specimens were collected both from the infertile and the pregnant women, whereas specimens from the fallopian tubes were collected from the infertile women only. Among infertile subjects with abnormal fallopian tube findings, the prevalence of IgG as well as IgM antibodies to C. trachomatis was significantly higher than in the control group (P less than or equal to 0.001). Similar statistically significant differences in antichlamydial geometric mean titer (GMT) also were observed in sera from infertile subjects with fallopian tube abnormalities and the controls. The chlamydial isolation rate from lower genital samples was low both among the infertile and pregnant women. All tubal samples were culture negative. The present study indicates a close connection between infertility of tubal etiology and an immune response to C. trachomatis. The possibility of active or recent chlamydial activity in at least some of these infertile subjects is discussed.