Ureaplasma urealyticum (T-mycoplasma) in vaginal fluid and cervical mucus from fertile and infertile women.

Ureaplasma urealyticum (T-mycoplasma) was isolated more frequently and in heavier growth from cervical mucus (49%) than from vaginal fluid (34%). It was isolated in 24% of vaginal fluid samples and in 35% of cervical mucus samples from fertile women, and in 29% of vaginal fluid samples and in 47% of cervical mucus samples from infertile women. The incidence of infection was high following abortion or total hysterectomy and during pregnancy or oral contraceptive use. T-mycoplasma was also isolated from the vaginal fluid and cervical mucus of a woman with tubo-ovarian abscess, but was not present in women with Trichomonas vaginalis infection. U. urealyticum did not alter the physiophysiologic characteristics of vaginal fluid and cervical mucus or the sperm penetration and sperm viability in cervical mucus. Treatment with tetracycline eradicated the organism in 88% of the infected women. Pregnancies were recorded during a 6-month follow-up in 1 of 19 infertile women who were treated with tetracycline.

Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial flora in semen from fertile and infertile groups of men.

Semen samples were collected by masturbation under asceptic conditions from men who had sired children within the past 6 mo (group A) and asymptomatic men attending an infertility clinic who had not sired children and whose wives were asymptomatic for infertility (group B). These 109 semen samples were analyzed and cultured for isolation of aerobic and anerobic organisms. Overall, 68% of the specimens had positive bacterial cultures: 54% of the samples from group A were positive and 73% from group B were positive. Mixed bacterial flora were isolated from both groups but in group B they were more varied and present in a higher colony count than in group A. Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staph. aureus, Corynebacterium species, Mycoplasma hominis, and Ureaplasma urealyticum were isolated from group A. Group B revealed these organisma plus Streptococcus pneumoniae type III, Strep. pyogenes group A, Strep. feacalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Bacteroides species, Peptostreptococcus species, and Eubacterium species. Semen samples from group A were of better quality than those from group B. In addition, the antibacterial effect of seminal plasma from group A was greater than that from group B.