WOMEN: BACTERIAL STDS. PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE (PID)
This is the name for inflammation with pus formation and scarring in the fallopian tubes and nearby structures in the pelvis. It is usually the result of spread of bacterial STD or of bacteria from the vagina to infect tubes previously damaged by STD or pelvic surgery. About half of all PID is caused by chlamydia.
PID has had a lot of publicity during the past decade because of the increasing number of reports of women with ’silent’ PID from chlamydia infection. Public health authorities have put much effort into making women aware of this possibility and encouraging them to have checkups if there has ever been a risk.
Why are we only aware of this epidemic happening now if chlamydia has been around forever? The explanation may be that with the increased sexual freedom of the 1960s and 70s (before we knew how to detect chlamydia), many people were infected with both gonorrhoea and chlamydia at the same time. They were treated with penicillin, which cleared up the gonorrhoea but left the chlamydia to spread to the tubes and be passed on to others.
I think PID is a bad name. It is imprecise: we don’t call tonsillitis ‘pharyngeal inflammatory disease’ or lung infections ‘thoracic inflammatory disease’. PID has been stigmatized through its association with STD, though some women have scarred tubes from other infections.
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