Relation between Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) and C. trachomatis Infection on Infertility in Women

Abstract

Infertility is one of world health problems, in which it is predicted that the case of infertility in couples of reproductive age is about 8%-10% or 50-80 million couples in the world. This becomes a problem, especially the factor caused in the women is of 65%. Various factors cause infertility, one of which is damage to reproductive organs caused by C. trachomatis infection and a significant decrease in the number of Lactobacillus populations. The objective of this study was to determine the relation between LAB and C. trachomatis infection on infertility in women. This is an analytic research with a case control design of 33 women of infertile reproductive age couples and 33 women of fertile reproductive age couples. This research was carried out in the working area of the Padang Pariaman District Health Office and the Microbiology Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine, Andalas University from June 2019 to February 2020. LAB cultures were carried out by using MRS agar and C. trachomatis media were examined by using PCR with a product length of 236 bp. The number of LAB colonies was analyzed by using Independent t-test and data analysis on C. trachomatis infection by using the chi-square test. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the number of LAB colonies on infertility in women (p=0.006) and there was no relation between C. trachomatis infection and infertility in women. The conclusion of this study is that there is a relation between the number of LAB colonies on infertility in women and there is no relation between C. trachomatis infection and infertility in women. Keywords: Lactic acid bacteria, Chlamydia trachomatis infection, infertility, PCR.