BACKGROUND Trichomonas vaginalis infection is a common sexually transmitted protozoal infection and is associated with several adverse health outcomes, such as preterm birth, delivery of a low-birth weight infant, and facilitation of sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus. The annual incidence in the United States has been estimated to be 3-5 million cases. However, there are no da...

In a healthy women, vaginal ecosystem acts to provide a barrier to both new colonization by pathogenic organisms and overgrowth of organisms that are otherwise commensals. Diabetes is a proven predisposing factor for the imbalance in vaginal microbiota resulting vulvovaginal candidiasis. The present study was undertaken to find out prevalence of vaginal candidiasis in diabetic women. For the st...

In the examination of sexual assault cases, DNA typing of vaginal samples mostly occurs after differential DNA extraction. Notwithstanding the differential extraction method, the DNA profiles from the seminal fraction often show the male alleles at low-level in combination with female alleles. This unfavorable ratio male to female DNA is due to a limited amount of sperm cells and an overwhelmin...

Our previous study reported microorganisms in human follicular fluid. The objective of this study was to test human follicular fluid for the presence of microorganisms and to correlate these findings with the in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes. In this study, 263 paired follicular fluids and vaginal swabs were collected from women undergoing IVF cycles, with various causes for infertility, a...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have suggested that bacteria associated with the placenta-a "placental microbiome"-may be important in reproductive health and disease. However, a challenge in working with specimens with low bacterial biomass, such as placental samples, is that some or all of the bacterial DNA may derive from contamination in dust or commercial reagents. To investigate this, we compar...

Preterm delivery (PTD) is the leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality in the United States. An epidemiological association between PTD and various bacteria that are part of the vaginal microflora has been reported. No single bacterial species has been identified as being causally associated with PTD, suggesting a multifactorial etiology. Quantitative microbiologic cultures have been use...

OBJECTIVE Estimate the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening strategies based on high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing of self-collected vaginal samples. MATERIALS AND METHODS A subset of 1,665 women (age range, 18-50 y) participating in a cervical cancer screening study were screened by liquid-based cytology and by high-risk HPV DNA testing of both self-coll...

OBJECTIVE The main goal of this study was to assess differences in the vaginal flora of pregnant women and provide a detailed evaluation of vaginal swabs for the presence of group B streptococcus (GBS) and other organisms in three teaching hospitals in Shiraz, southwest of Iran. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In a cross-sectional study from April 2006 to March 2007, 310 women with vaginal delivery at t...

BACKGROUND Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common among women and frequently recur. Depletion of vaginal lactobacilli is associated with UTI risk, which suggests that repletion may be beneficial. We conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of a Lactobacillus crispatus intravaginal suppository probiotic (Lactin-V; Osel) for prevention of recurrent UTI in premenopausal women. METHO...

INTRODUCTION In the Microbicide Trial Network MTN-003 (VOICE) study, a Phase IIB pre-exposure prophylaxis trial of daily oral or vaginal tenofovir (TFV), product adherence was poor based on pharmacokinetic (PK) drug detection in a random subsample. Here, we sought to compare behavioural and PK measures of adherence and examined correlates of adherence misreporting. METHODS We included partici...