A woman who has only one partner (who is also sexually exclusive) has a very low risk of PID. Even if you have only one sexual partner, you can still get PID if your partner is having intercourse with other people. As with STDs in general, the more sexual partners a woman has, the more likely she is to get PID. Finally, tissue damage can leave many women with chronic pelvic pain long after the PID infection is gone.Īlthough anyone can get PID, the disorder is especially common in women under 25 years old (see 'Who's at Risk for PID?'). Without treatment, the tube may burst, causing internal bleeding and possibly death. PID also increases the risk of an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg gets trapped in the tube and begins to grow there. After three episodes of PID, the infertility rate reaches 50%.

About 12% of women suffer enough tubal damage from one episode of PID to become infertile. PID can permanently scar and damage the fallopian tubes, causing blockage of the tubes. Each year about 250,000 US women are hospitalized because of PID, and more than 150 die.Įven aside from the immediate dangers, the long-term effects of PID can be devastating. PID can spread beyond the reproductive tract, causing serious and potentially deadly complications. PID can occur after a miscarriage, abortion, or any other procedure that opens the cervix or abdomen, allowing disease-causing germs easy entry to the reproductive organs. Up to 40% of women who get one of these infections and don't have it adequately treated will wind up with PID. Most cases of PID are acquired during sexual intercourse with a partner who has a sexually transmitted disease (STD), primarily chlamydia or gonorrhea. PID occurs when disease-causing microorganisms in the lower genital tract rise through the opening in the cervix, which separates the uterus and the vagina (see 'How PID infects the reproductive organs'). Pelvic inflammatory disease is a term for a variety of infections affecting a woman's upper reproductive organs, including the uterus, the ovaries, and the two fallopian tubes that serve as passageways between the ovaries and the womb.

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