Treatment of Mycoplasma genitalium infection in pregnancy: A systematic review of international guidelines

Abstract

Background: Mycoplasma genitalium is an emerging pathogen, which has been linked to cervicitis, urethritis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). With the advent of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) panels for sexually transmitted infections, it is increasingly being identified in pregnant women.

Objectives: The aim was to review international guidelines, which had explicit recommendations for treatment of M. genitalium infection in pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Search strategy: PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane databases were reviewed with no age, species, language or date restrictions.

Selection criteria: Studies were included if they had an explicit recommendation for treatment of M. genitalium in pregnancy. Studies were excluded if there was no recommendation in pregnancy, if they referred to other international guideline recommendations or were historical versions of guidelines.

Data collection and analysis: References were manually reviewed and 50 papers were selected for review. Only four guidelines were included in the final analysis and they were from Europe, UK, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Main results: All studies recommended azithromycin as first-line treatment, and advised against moxifloxacin use. The dosing schedule of azithromycin, varied between guidelines, as did the utility/safety of pristinamycin for macrolide resistant infections. Safety data was generally reassuring for azithromycin but inconsistent for pristinamycin.

Conclusions: Azithromycin is the first-line treatment for macrolide susceptible or unknown resistance infections, but there is a lack of consistency regarding dosing of azithromycin or the utility/safety of pristinamycin for macrolide resistant infections in pregnancy/lactation.

Keywords: M. genitalium; Mycoplasma genitalium; STI; azithromycin; cervicitis; pregnancy; pristinamycin; urethritis.