PID symptoms

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is the namefor the condition that is characterized by the infection of the reproductive organsin women. Pelvic inflammatory disease is caused by bacteria that aretransmitted through sexual intercourse. If these bacteria reach uterus andupper genital tract in that case, pelvic inflammatory disease occurs. This disease is very frequent and for example inAmerica over a million women a year develop it.

Pelvic inflammatory disease has many symptomsand warning signs, but only in the later stages. At the beginning, the womenwith this disease usually do not notice any symptoms. Only when they begin tofeel chronic pelvic pain or when they have problems to get pregnant, theydiscover this infection. Pelvic inflammatory disease can be evenasymptomatic for example when the infection is caused by Chlamydia. It can bevery problematic because in that case it is not treated and can be passed toother sexual partners. Pelvic inflammatory disease can be mild oracute and severe or chronic.

Symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease

The most frequent symptom of pelvicinflammatory disease is pain in the lower abdomen. This pain usually worsens by movement, and is stronger during the night. Pain in the pelvis and low backpain are also very common, while pain that occurs during the intercourse, which is medicallycalled dyspareunia, is one of the symptoms as well. This kind of pain can be reproducedwhen the doctor touches cervix during the examination. This is called cervical excitationtenderness. Furthermore, painful and difficult urination may also occur.

Women who have this infection may also complain of irregular menstrual bleeding, which is eitherprolonged or erratic. The increased vaginal discharge with an unpleasant smellis very often, too. Moreover, in some cases, the women experience nausea, vomiting,high temperature as well as fever and fatigue. There are also cases when women reported signs of shock such as fainting. Genital sores or rash andbleeding between the menstrual periods are also some of the signs of pelvicinflammatory disease.

Complications of pelvic inflammatory disease

If the women notice some of the signs mentioned above, she must stop having sex and visit the doctor. It is veryimportant to treat this disease on time, because it can lead to some complications such as infertility chronic pelvic pain and ectopic or tubal pregnancy. If thisdisease is not treated it can lead to scar tissue and collections of infectedfluid in the fallopian tubes thus seriously damaging the reproductive organs.