FRIDAY, May 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A considerable number of women reporting extragenital exposures have Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), and many infections would be missed with urogenital-only testing, according to a study published in the May issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Joshua D. Trebach, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the prevalence of GC and CT in women attending two urban sexually transmitted disease clinics. Data were included for 10,389 patients who reported extragenital exposures, presented for care, and were tested for GC and CT using nucleic acid amplification tests at all sites of exposure.
The researchers found that the prevalence estimates of any extragenital GC and CT were 2.4 and 3.7 percent, respectively, in women; 2.6 and 1.6 percent, respectively, in men who have sex with women; and 18.9 and 11.8 percent, respectively, in men who have sex with men. With urogenital-only testing, 30.3 percent of GC infections and 13.8 percent of CT infections among women would have been missed. Age ≤18 years was the strongest predictor of extragenital infections in women, unlike men who have sex with men.
"Cost-effectiveness analyses are needed to help inform national guidelines on extragenital screening in young women," the authors write.
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