Decreased risk of symptomatic chlamydial pelvic inflammatory disease associated with oral contraceptive use

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Studies have shown that oral contraceptive use may protect against pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), but it is not known whether oral contraceptives protect against the disease among women already infected withChlamydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The relationship between oral contraceptive use and PID was analyzed in a case-control study of 141 women with verified PID and 739 randomly selected, sexually active women with no clinical evidence of the disease. Case and control subjects were stratified on the basis of infection withC trachomatis,N gonorrhoeae, or neither organism. Among women infected withC trachomatisalone, those with PID were less likely than control subjects to use oral contraceptives. The association was significant when oral contraceptive use was compared with nonuse (odds ratio, 0.22; 95% confidence interval, 0.08 to 0.64) and with noncontraception (odds ratio, 0.17; 95% confidence interval, 0.06 to 0.53) and remained so after adjusting for potential confounding variables by logistic regression analysis. Among women infected withN gonorrhoeaealone, no association was found between use of oral contraceptives and PID. These data suggest that oral contraceptive use protects against symptomatic PID among women infected withC trachomatisbut not among those infected withN gonorrhoeae. (JAMA. 1990;263:54-59)