Association between Semen Exposure and Incident Bacterial Vaginosis

Abstract EN

Objective.

To identify correlates of incident bacterial vaginosis (BV) diagnosed with Nugent scoring among high-risk women.

Study Design.

We conducted both cohort and case-crossover analyses, stratified by HIV infection status, based on 871 HIV-infected and 439 HIV-uninfected participants in the HIV Epidemiology Research Study, conducted in 4 US sites in 1993–2000.

Results.

BV incidence was 21% and 19% among HIV-infected and -uninfected women, respectively.

Fewer correlates of BV were found with case-crossover than with cohort design.

Reporting frequent coitus (regardless of consistency of condom use) was correlated with BV in cohort analyses but not in case-crossover analyses.

The sole correlate of BV in both types of analyses was the detection of spermatozoa on Gram stain, which is a marker of semen exposure.

Conclusion.

The inconsistent association between condom use and BV in prior studies could be from reporting bias.

We found evidence of a relationship between semen exposure and incident BV.