Objective: Evaluation the effect of chlamydial infection and microbial
flora in cervical mucus at the time of embryo transfer on fertilization and
implantation in women undergoing ICSI procedures.
Patients and Methods: 500 infertile women were enrolled in this study.
All were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Assisted Reproduction unit
in International Islamic Centre for Population Studies and Researches, AlAzhar University. All participants underwent pituitary down-regulation
using either long or short protocol followed by ovarian stimulation, oocytes retrieval, fertilization, and embryos transfer. In the study group, cervical swabs were taken with the first folliculometry and screened for Chlamydia & other bacterial growth; antibiotics were given accordingly for
positive cases. During ET, cervical swabs were taken from control group < br />and tested for Chlamydia & other bacterial infection but with no usage of
any antimicrobials, pregnancy tests were done two weeks after ET, and the
participants were accordingly divided into two subgroups: pregnant group < br />and non-pregnant group.
Results: Overall incidence of pregnancy: 193/500 (38.6 %), and for those
who got pregnant, the incidence of Chlamydia alone (in study group) was
8.89 % compared to 8.74% (in control group). Incidence of other bacterial growth (in study group) was 35.56% compared to 30.1% (in control
group). Incidence of associated Chlamydia & other bacterial growth (in
study group) was 8.89 % compared to 5.83% (in control group)
Conclusion: Chlamydial infection and microbial flora of the cervix detected during ET has no role in the implantation process, and does not affect
pregnancy rates significantly in women undergoing ICSI, and antimicrobial has no significant role in improving outcome of pregnancy rate.