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Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (cont.)

Outlook

If you are diagnosed and treated early, your outcome is good. The outcome may not be as good if you wait too long before treatment and/or engage in unsafe sexual practices. Complications can occur:

Tubal damage and scarring can result in infertility. PID is the most common cause of infertility in women. Following a single episode of PID, 8% of women were infertile; after 2 episodes, 19.5% of women were infertile; and after 3 or more episodes, 40% of women were infertile.
Ectopic pregnancy is 6 times more common in women who have had PID at least once. In the United States, half of all women with such pregnancies have had a prior episode of PID.
Chronic pelvic pain is present in up to 18% of women with PID.
Ovarian abscesses can occur after an episode of PID. Untreated PID also puts you at risk for a tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA). A TOA is a collection of bacteria, pus, and fluid that occurs in the fallopian tube. It is most often seen in teens. A TOA is also more likely to occur in teens or adult women who use intrauterine devices (IUDs) as birth control. A teen girl with a TOA often looks sick and has a fever and pain that makes it difficult to walk. The abscess will be treated in the hospital with antibiotics, and surgery may be needed to remove it.

If you have PID, you are at increased risk of getting PID again. As many as one third of women who have had PID will have the disease at least one more time. With each case, your risk of becoming infertile is increased.