The association of seropositivity to human papillomavirus (HPV) capsids of types 11, 16, 18, or 33 with sexual behavior was investigated. Among 1002 women visiting family planning or youth clinics in Sweden, an age-matched subsample of 274 women stratified according to lifetime number of sex partners was analyzed. The proportion of HPV-16-seropositive subjects increased linearly at approximately 4% per partner (P < .001), from 4% among those with 1 lifetime partner to 35% among those with >5 lifetime partners. Also, HPV-33 and HPV-18 seroprevalences were linearly dependent on the number of partners (P < .001, increase with 4% per partner, and P = .008, increase with approximately 3% per partner, respectively), providing serologic confirmation that the important mode of transmission of HPV-16, -18, or -33 infection in women is sexual. HPV serology appears to be suitable as a marker of sexual behavior in populations.

In a 20-year longitudinal study on ectopic pregnancy in a defined population of women aged 15-39 years the rate of ectopic pregnancy per 1000 diagnosed conceptions increased from 5 8 during 1960-4 to 11 1 during 1975-9. The mean annual incidence of ectopic pregnancy per 1000 women increased from 0 6 to 1 2 during the same period. The numbers of ectopic pregnancies per 1000 diagnosed conceptions increased with increasing age of the women and were 4 1, in the teenage group 6 9, in women aged 20-29 years, and 12 9 in women aged 30-39. Among 20-to 29-year-old sexually active women at risk of pregnancy who had never had acute salpingitis the rates of ectopic pregnancy per 100 woman-years were the same in those who did not use contraceptives as in those using non-medicated or copper-medicated intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCDs; 0 3/100 woman years). The risk of an ectopic pregnancy increased sevenfold after acute salpingitis.These findings confirm the increased risk of ectopic pregnancy after salpingitis and suggest that the increase in the incidence of ectopic pregnancy in Lund from 1960 to 1979 was partly accounted for by the use of IUCDs.

Nagy, E., Petterson, M. & MArdh, P-A. Antibiosis between bacteria isolated from the vagina of women with and without signs of bacterial vaginosis. APMIS 99: 739-744, 1991. Lactobacilli from women with and without bacterial vaginosis (BV) were tested for HzOz production. Thirty-seven (79%) of the 47 strains of lactobacilli isolated from the women without BV produced HzOz, while only nine (23%) of the 39 strains of lactobacilli obtained from women with BV did so. Five of 20 H,O,-producing and two of 26 non-producing strains of Lactobacillus exhibited antibiosis against four of 12 strains of peptostreptococci and two of 10 strains of Mobiluncus spp. None of a further 41 different anaerobic and facultative anaerobic bacterial strains were inhibited by any of the isolates of lactobacilli tested. Some strains of Gardnerella vaginalis, Bacteriodes spp., Mobiluncus spp. and Peptostreptococcus spp. inhibited the growth of three strains of lactobacilli belonging to different species. When the pH of the culture medium was increased from 6.0 to 6.5 this led to a decrease in the number of strains inhibited and/or the size of the growth-inhibitory zones. Different concentrations of H202 did not inhibit any of the strains tested. The growth-inhibitory effect of lactobacilli could not be related to their bacteriocin production. Increasing the iron content of the medium by adding FeCl, (0.01 mM-1 mM) decreased or completely abolished the antibiosis.

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