Epidemiology

Introduction

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a clinical syndrome in women associated with the ascending spread of microorganisms from the vagina or the cervix to the upper genital tract. PID comprises a spectrum of inflammatory disorders including any combination of endometritis, salpingitis, tubo-ovarian abscess, or pelvic peritonitis. PID may be asymptomatic ("silent") or overt with mild to severe symptoms.

Incidence

Approximately one million U.S. women are diagnosed with PID each year. The annual cost of treating PID and its sequelae is reported to exceed $4.2 billion. No national surveillance or reporting requirements exist, and national estimates are limited by insensitive clinical diagnosis criteria.

Hospitalizations for PID declined steadily throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but have remained relatively constant between 2000 and 2006. This may reflect changes in outpatient management of PID rather than a disease trend.

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The reported number of initial visits to physicians' offices for PID has generally declined from 2000 through 2007.

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