How prevalent are symptoms and risk factors of pelvic inflammatory disease in a sexually conservative population

Abstract

Plain language summary As a sexually conservative country, Jordan is thought to have a low prevalence of pelvic inflammatory disease. The prevalence of STD pathogens is very low, however many patients present symptoms of PID, so we randomly interviewed 168 healthy participants and investigated symptoms related to PID. Surprisingly the percentage of participants who had symptoms of PID was high, reaching up to 64% for some symptoms. We then created a PID symptom score; where every symptom gets one mark (1–11), and tested it for association against independent factors. As a result, it can be predicted that a woman with higher parity, who used contraceptives, and underwent E & C, D & C, HSG, or Hysteroscopy is expected to score higher in the PID Symptom Score. This result draws the attention to PID incidence in similar conservative communities, and therefore further research is needed to confirm the prevalence of PID and identify the causative factors.

Keywords

• Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
• Women’s health
• Infertility
• Contraceptives
• Chronic pelvic pain
• Jordan