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Ureaplasma urealyticum: the Role as a Pathogen in Women’s Health, a Systematic Review

  • Female Genital Tract Infections (J Sobel, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

To evaluate the role of Ureaplasma urealyticum as a genital pathogen in women’s health. Three aspects were analyzed: (1) preterm delivery (PTD); (2) female infertility; and (3) lower genital tract pathology including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), cervicitis, and genital discomfort (discharge, burning).

Recent Findings

A systematic review was performed. Searching PUBMED and EMBASE for published articles from January 2003 to September 2017 using the key word “Ureaplasma urealyticum” yielded 1835 manuscripts. These were further screened using defined inclusion criteria: (1) original peer-reviewed observational studies; (2) English language; (3) U. urealyticum was specifically isolated; (4) present “cases”/“exposed” and “controls”/“unexposed” to enable calculating an association between U. urealyticum and the outcome studied. Altogether, 32 studies were included that underwent quality scoring based on methodology, sample size, study population, and method of identification of U. urealyticum. The association of U. urealyticum and PTD was inconsistent between the studies. Eight of the ten prospective studies failed to show an association between U. urealyticum and PTD, yet four of the six case control studies found a positive association. Regarding female infertility and genital discomfort, five of the six studies for each of these topics failed to find an association. Only two studies met the inclusion criteria for cervicitis with conflicting conclusions. Unfortunately, none of the studies met the inclusion criteria for PID.

Summary

It seems that U. urealyticum has a limited role as a pathogen in female infertility, cervicitis, PID, and genital discomfort. The role as a pathogen in PTD is unclear and future studies are needed to address this issue.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Iris Arad PhD Head of Shaare Zedek Medical Center Library for her help.

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Author notes

  1. Hanna Hershko Kletzel and Reut Rotem contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Hanna Hershko Kletzel, Reut Rotem, Moshe Barg, Jennia Michaeli & Orna Reichman

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  1. Hanna Hershko Kletzel
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Correspondence to Orna Reichman.

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Hanna Hershko Kletzel, Reut Rotem, Moshe Barg, Jennia Michaeli, and Orna Reichman declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Female Genital Tract Infections

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Kletzel, H.H., Rotem, R., Barg, M. et al. Ureaplasma urealyticum: the Role as a Pathogen in Women’s Health, a Systematic Review. Curr Infect Dis Rep 20, 33 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-018-0640-y

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