Reproductive Tract Infections among Women in Pakistan: An Urban Case Study

Reproductive tract infections (RTIs) among women—despite being common and having grave consequences—are not given much attention by policy-makers and health planners. The asymptomatic nature of most infections makes their detection and diagnosis difficult, making laboratory testing the most accurate method of bio-medical diagnosis. The present paper assesses the magnitude and nature of infections as diagnosed through laboratory testing and looks into the variation in magnitude and the nature of RTIs among women with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The aetiological rate of infection among women is found to be 24 percent, with the majority of these women testing positive for endogenous infections. Factors significantly increasing the likelihood of having an infection include intrauterine device use or getting a tubectomy, short inter-pregnancy intervals, and lower economic status of women.