Morbidity associated with pelvic inflammatory disease.

To identify the long-term sequelae and morbidity associated with acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) patients with acute PID and matched controls were interviewed at five-monthly intervals for about 21 months after entry into the study. In some instances morbidity among the patients was increased, particularly at five months after admission to hospital. Significantly more patients than controls had visited hospital as outpatients, been admitted to hospital and undergone abdominal operations, and had to alter their normal daily routine and take time off work. The cumulative rates for all of these, except for time off work, were significantly higher in the patients than in the controls. Differences between the two groups both at early and later interviews and cumulatively were evident in the incidence of abdominal pain (other than menstrual pain), change in menstruation (longer and more painful), and pain during sexual intercourse, which persisted in one-fifth of patients after the initial acute episode.