Tracey’s circumstances are indicative of a typical PID scenario. Now she says her waking thoughts revolve around “if only I hadn’t done that.”
Tracey went to her doctor six months ago, when she had bleeding between periods and pain in her pelvis.
“At the time I was more focused on my broken heart,” she says. “The year before, I’d split with my long-term boyfriend and since then, I’d had a few casual partners. I was on the Pill and didn’t bother with condoms… which of course I really, really regret now.”
Tracey’s doctor diagnosed chlamydia. “I hadn’t even heard of it before,” she says, “although apparently cystitis can be a symptom, and I certainly had that. The bleeding and pain were [symptoms] too.”
The doctor prescribed antibiotics, which usually effectively wipe out chlamydia.
“I thought that’d be the end of the problem,” Tracey explains. “How wrong…”
“The pain in my abdomen just became worse. In the end, the doctor did an internal examination, which really hurt. Apparently that level of tenderness showed my cervix was probably infected. Then I had an ultrasound scan, which revealed my fallopian tubes were so damaged by infection they’d turned to pulp. I was diagnosed with PID.”
Of course, the implications were enormous. Tracey was given a two-week-long prescription of two types of antibiotics to try and kill the infection. They worked. But the damage to her internal organs could not be reversed.
“My tubes were removed two months ago,” she says, “along with any hope of ever being able to conceive a baby naturally. The day of the op was the most devastating of my life. When I do find Mr. Right and want to start a family, it’ll have to be with IVF.”
Of course, you don’t need to have lots of boyfriends to succumb to a sexual infection. Sometimes all you need is a husband, as Melanie discovered.
“I caught chlamydia about fifteen years ago,” she explains. “The day it was diagnosed, I realized my husband must have been unfaithful and our marriage was over.”
