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Evaluation of molecular testing for Mycoplasma genitalium for symptomatic women

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Abstract

Mycoplasma genitalium is an emerging cause of sexually transmitted infections (STI) with a capacity to rapidly develop antibiotic resistance. The aim of this work was to carry out an evaluation and descriptive analysis of routine molecular testing of M. genitalium in symptomatic women at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin January 2018-December 2019. 1972 specimens were tested from1291 individual symptomatic female patients > 18 years old. The median age was 29 (range 18–71). There were 10 confirmed positive specimens (0.77%); median patient age 26 (range 18–34); seven were obstetrics/gynaecology patients and three were attendees at a sexual assault treatment unit (SATU). The prevalence of positive cases in the ≥ 18 ≤ 30-year-old age group (n = 683) was six times that of the ≥ 30 year-old age group (n = 608) at 1.3% versus 0.2%. Patient symptoms included: discharge in five (50%); pelvic pain on examination in five (50%); abdominal pain in two (20%); pelvic bleeding in two (20%); dyspareunia in two (20%) patients. Co-infections were present in three patients (30%). Macrolide resistance was detected in two positives (28.6%). This initial pilot study prompts the following recommendations which require further study and consideration: 1. promotion of M. genitalium status to notifiable disease; 2 widespread screening of female population not warranted; 3. M. genitalium testing for women symptomatic for STIs; 4. antibiotic resistance testing of all positive cases. 5. Further research into other potential risk groups.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff of the Microbiology Laboratory at the Rotunda Hospital for their help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Laboratory, Health Service Executive, Dublin, Ireland

    Carina Brehony

  2. European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, European Public Health Microbiology Training Programme (EUPHEM), Stockholm, Sweden

    Carina Brehony

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

    Maeve Eogan

  4. Department of Infectious Diseases, Mater Misericordae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

    John S. Lambert

  5. Clinical Innovation Unit, Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

    Richard J. Drew

  6. Irish Meningitis and Sepsis Reference Laboratory, Childrens’ Health Ireland At Temple Street, Dublin, Ireland

    Richard J. Drew

  7. Department of Clinical Microbiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

    Richard J. Drew

Authors
  1. Carina Brehony
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  2. Maeve Eogan
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  3. John S. Lambert
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  4. Richard J. Drew
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Contributions

Conceptualisation: CB, ME and RD. Methodology: CB, ME and RD. Formal analysis and contextual interpretation: CB, JS, ME and RD. Writing original draft preparation: CB. Writing—review and editing: CB, JL, ME and RD. Approval of final written version: CB, ME, JL and RD.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard J. Drew.

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Ethics approval

Ethics approval granted by Rotunda Hospital Research Advisory Group RAG-2020–005.

Consent to participate

This was done as a retrospective study and data was anonymised at time of extraction. It was non-interventional and express consent was not sought from individual patient. Issues around consent were addressed in the ethics submission.

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The study contains irrevocably anonymised patient data and consent for publication was not required.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Brehony, C., Eogan, M., Lambert, J.S. et al. Evaluation of molecular testing for Mycoplasma genitalium for symptomatic women. Ir J Med Sci 191, 1771–1775 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02782-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02782-1

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