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Association between genital mycoplasmas infection and human papillomavirus infection, abnormal cervical cytopathology, and cervical cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Background

Some studies demonstrated that female genital mycoplasmas play important roles in human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, abnormal cervical cytopathology, and cervical cancer. However, those results remained inconclusive. We aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the association between female genital mycoplasmas and those disorders.

Methods

Computerized databases were comprehensively searched before 26 January 2017. Pooled odd radios (ORs) and correlative 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were adopted to evaluate the strength of association.

Results

Our meta-analysis included 22 studies with 16,181 participants. Ureaplasma urealyticum and Ureaplasma parvum were associated with a significantly increased risk of overall HPV infection (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.05–2.34; OR 3.02, 95% CI 2.10–4.33, respectively), and U. urealyticum and Mycoplasma genitalium were associated with a significantly increased risk of high-risk HPV infection (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.05–1.80; OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.11–2.02, respectively). In addition, U. urealyticum, U. parvum, and Mycoplasma hominis were associated with a significantly increased risk of abnormal cervical cytopathology (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.23–1.85; OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10–1.80; OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.10–1.99, respectively).

Conclusion

We found that U. urealyticum and M. genitalium may increase the risk of high-risk HPV infection, while U. urealyticum, U. parvum, and M. hominis may increase the risk of abnormal cervical cytopathology.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Hui Ye, Tiange Song, and Xi Zeng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Number 20-9, Third Section of People’s South Road, Chengdu, 610000, China

    Hui Ye, Xi Zeng, Lin Li, Minmin Hou & Mingrong Xi

  2. West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610000, China

    Hui Ye & Tiange Song

  3. Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China

    Mingrong Xi

Authors
  1. Hui Ye
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  4. Lin Li
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Contributions

HY: project development, data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing. TS: data collection and manuscript writing. XZ: data analysis and manuscript writing. LL and MH: data analysis and manuscript editing. MX: project development, data analysis, and manuscript editing.

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Correspondence to Mingrong Xi.

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No patient consent or ethical approval was required, because analyses were based on the previous published studies.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ye, H., Song, T., Zeng, X. et al. Association between genital mycoplasmas infection and human papillomavirus infection, abnormal cervical cytopathology, and cervical cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 297, 1377–1387 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4733-5

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