The international research team base their conclusions on long term monitoring of almost 44,000 women aged 15 to 24 between 1985 and 1989.
The women were taking part in the Swedish Uppsala Women's Cohort Study, which links information from laboratory, hospital, and population registers.
The women's reproductive health was tracked up to the end of 1999, and a cumulative rate calculated for a hospital diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease (infection of the fallopian tubes), ectopic pregnancy (a fertilised egg implanting in the fallopian tube), or infertility.
All of these conditions can be caused by the sexually transmitted infection Chlamydia trachomatis.
The researchers found that although testing positive for Chlamydia increased the chances of all these conditions, the rates were not as high as the results of earlier studies had suggested.
The rate of pelvic inflammatory disease or PID was just under 4% by the age of 35 across the entire group. In those who had tested positive for Chlamydia, this figure rose to 5.6%.
The rate was 4% in women who had tested negative and just under 3% in those who had never been screened.
Similarly, the overall rate of ectopic pregnancy was 2.3%, rising to 2.7% in those testing positive for Chlamydia. It was 2% for those testing negative for the infection and just under 2% for those who had never been screened.
For infertility, the rate was just over 4% for the entire group and 6.7% for those testing positive for Chlamydia The rate was 4.7% for those testing negative and just over 3% for those who had never been screened.
The researchers comment that the rate of severe complications as a result of Chlamydia infection seems to be lower than expected, suggesting that the predicted
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Contact: Emma Dickinson
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BMJ Specialty Journals
24-May-2006