Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis Infection among Women attending infertility Clinics in Calabar, Nigeria.

Abstract

The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection was investigated among 100 women attending infertility clinics and compared with another subset of 100 pregnant women who served as control. Chlamydia trachomatis antigen detection cassette supplied by Biomil Diagnostics was used to detect the presence of chlamydial antigen in endocervical swabs collected from each of the subjects. Questionnaire-based interview was used by the attending clinician to collect the demographic characteristics of the subjects for analysis. Twenty two 22 (22%) women with infertility and 2 (2%) of the control group tested positive for chlamydial antigen (p<0.05). The highest rate of infection (30.4%) was observed among those aged between 18-25 years. Students, primary school as educational status and respondents cohabiting had the highest rates of infection of 31.3%, 31.8% and 40% respectively in their various categories. Infection was not found to be associated with a particular type of infertility (primary or secondary) (p>0.05). This study has demonstrated the involvement of Chlamydia trachomatis in female infertility and the need to put in place appropriate facilities to screen for Chlamydia
trachomatis among women with infertility problem in the study area.