CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN UNDER FERTILITY INVESTIGATION WITH IGA IGG SEROPOSITIVITY FOR CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS/

Chlamydial serology was performed in a group of 100 consecutive women and their partners under fertility investigation. Over one-quarter of the women had evidence of an ongoing, asymptomatic chlamydial infectio n. A significantly higher incidence of IgA-positivity was associated w ith women with evidence of tubal pathology, verified by hysterosalping ography and/or laparoscopy and with previous users of intrauterine dev ices. The male partners of IgA-positive women had a significantly high er incidence of IgA-positivity than the other men. However, this was n ot associated with an increase in sperm pathology relative to the cont rols. The study indicates that chlamydial serology should be integrate d into the routine screening of women under fertility investigation re gardless of previous history and that IgA serology provides more infor mation about tubal pathology than IgG serology.