Microbiological screening of three different contraceptive schedules commonly employed for birth control in Egypt for potential pathogenicity on the microflora of the lower female genital tract

ABSTRACT

Comparative screening of three different schedules of birth control for adverse effect favoring microbial infection of the lower female genital tract was conducted in equal-sized [N = 30] and age matching groups of married multipara adopting oral intake of contraceptive pills [Gr.2], long-acting injectable MPA [Gr.3] and I.U.D. Wearers [Gr.4]. The microbiological results in each of these three instances were expressed in terms of the percentage incidence frequencies of positive [infected] cervical, endocervical and vaginal smears assessed with reference to parallel well fitting [Gr.1] normal control multipara of the non-contractive users category. The outcome of this investigation revealed the occurrence of the most serious deleterious effect among [Gr.4] I.U.D. wearers reflected by 10% frequency rate for positive actinomycetes infection among cervical-endocervical smears compared to notable absence of such infection in [Gr.1] normal controls. In the meantime, the frequency rates of positive vaginal smears were markedly enhanced by variable magnitudes and probability levels of statistical significance for almost all varieties of microflora. On the other extreme, long acting injectable MPA contraceptive in [Gr.4] multipara proved superior on account of its freedom from predisposition to enhanced microbial infection with virtually all types of microorganisms with the notable exception of bacteroides [20%]. The drawbacks ascribed to oral intake of contraceptive pills involved markedly increased susceptibility to vaginal infection by aerobic micrococci [80%], anaerobic diphtheroids [30%] and Candida albicans [23.3%]