Objective: To determine the prevalence of genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) in women of reproductive age and to evaluate a potential relation of asymptomatic HSV shedding with a cervical factor.
Design: Prospective study.
Setting: Outpatient infertility clinic of a university hospital.
Patient(s): Randomly chosen asymptomatic women (n = 1,262) with a median age of 30 years.
Intervention(s): None.
Main outcome measure(s): Prevalence of cervical HSV, cervical index parameters, and other variables of CM quality, including CM penetrability in vivo and in vitro.
Result(s): The prevalence of HSV infection of the uterine cervix was 5.2% (identified with cell culture). There was a tendency toward increased viscosity of the CM in HSV-positive women, but no significant relation with the other variables of CM quality (amount, spinnbarkeit, ferning, cervical appearance, and cellularity of the CM), or with the summarized Insler score or the cervical index according to World Health Organization guidelines. Postcoital testing and the in vitro penetration test, using either partners' or donors' semen, showed that the penetrability of the CM did not differ significantly between women with and without cervical HSV shedding. Asymptomatic cervical HSV infection was not significantly associated with bacterial colonization of the lower genital tract, with leukocyte counts in cervical secretions, with the pH of the CM or the vaginal fluid, or with antisperm antibodies in the CM.
Conclusion(s): The results suggest that in asymptomatic women under controlled endocrine conditions, cervical HSV infection is not a significant cause of impaired quality and penetrability of the CM.