Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection of the uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries and is probably the most common serious infection in young women, although its incidence and prevalence are unknown in Portugal. This disease usually affects sexually active women during childbearing years.

Pelvic inflammatory disease is a common cause of infertility able to be prevented. Infection can cause the tissue within the fallopian tube scarring form, which can damage these structures or block them completely. The more times a woman has this type of infection, the greater the risk becomes infertile. The risk doubles every episode of the disease.

The researchers believe that most cases it develops from diseases / sexually transmitted infections. The two situations are more likely to lead to pelvic inflammatory disease is gonorrhea and chlamydia. Without treatment, the bacteria that cause these diseases can ascend the genital tract and cause pelvic inflammatory disease.

Pelvic inflammatory disease usually develops in a process with two stages. At first, the microorganisms affect the cervix (the opening of the uterus). Then, in approximately 10% of women, bacteria migrate to the uterus, fallopian tubes to or at the ovaries. More rarely, pelvic inflammatory disease may develop if the bacteria reach the upper parts of the reproductive tract after childbirth, inserting an intrauterine device (IUD) or an induced abortion. All this entails some risk of infection, especially if the patient is also a disease / sexually transmitted infection (STD / STI).

Pelvic inflammatory disease is more common in women under the age of 25 who have more than one sexual partner. Women who had a disease / sexually transmitted infection have a higher risk of having pelvic inflammatory disease, as do those that have had a prior pelvic infection. Any woman whose sexual partner has more than one partner also has an increased risk of pelvic infection.

Prevention

Besides avoiding sexual intercourse, there is no sure way to prevent pelvic inflammatory disease. However, women who have sex with only one stable partner have a very small risk if any of the people have been infected with a disease / sexually transmitted infection from a previous partner. Condoms provide protection against sexually transmitted infections. Although oral contraceptives can prevent pregnancy, women with more than one sexual partner must make sure that their partners use condoms whenever they have sex vaginally.

Since most cases of pelvic inflammatory disease is associated diseases / sexually transmitted infections, the treatment of sexual partners of a woman is essential to prevent repeated infections. All recent sex partners a woman with pelvic inflammatory disease should be examined by a doctor and treated as if they had either gonorrhea or chlamydia. A woman with pelvic inflammatory disease should not go back to having sex while their sex partners have not been treated.

Treatment

The main treatment for pelvic inflammatory disease is the administration of antibiotics which, in most cases, by itself, can cure the infection. Once the pelvic inflammatory disease is often caused by more than one type of organism, can take two or more antibiotics, which may be taken orally or intravenously. If oral antibiotics are used, it is important that the patient take treatment until the end, even if symptoms disappear, given that the infection may still be present after the symptoms have subsided. In most cases, the antibiotic must be taken for 10 to 14 days.

If a woman is being treated for pelvic inflammatory disease, you should contact your doctor if after two or three days of treatment is not improving, it may be necessary to be re-examined.

Some women with severe infection need to be hospitalized to be treated with intravenous antibiotics. If the fever and the pain does not improve after a few days, it may be necessary to perform an ultrasound or computed tomography (CT) to determine if an abscess has formed. If so, the patient will probably need to undergo a surgical intervention, and treatment with antibiotics to cure the infection.

As with any significant infection, bed rest or reduced activity are important to promote recovery. The pain and discomfort can be relieved with analgesics, with hot baths and hot water bottles applied lombossagrada in the region (the lower back) and abdomen.