Unusual Oropharyngeal Asymptomatic Manifestations Caused by Atypical Pathogens Detected by PCR into Altered Ecosystems of an Infertile Couple

Abstract

The young couple casually arrived at our observation presented two different and painless altered ecosystems. The female partner exhibited inflamed lingual surface, while the man manifested several genital ulceration areas. Microbiological analysis of several sites belonging to each ecosystem revealed a latent dismicrobic ecosystem, as also confirmed by altered pH values. Interestingly, microbiological analysis for Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum, and Chlamydia trachomatis gave different results in both ecosystems, highlighting that each partner was differently infected by the same “silent infections”. The frequency of Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) chronic morbidity for these atypical infections increases, in the couple, the probability that mycoplasmosis and chlamydiasis serve as a reservoir of infection and/or reinfection for the urogenital tract. Although it is well known that several common bacteria and “atypical pathogens” - like mycoplasmas and C. trachomatis - can colonize both oral and urogenital ecosystems, rarely happens that they can clinically manifest their presence by unusual clinical manifestations we observed in different ecosystems investigated, hiding the unique true problem of infertility in the young couple. In this regard, our results showed that only starting from an accurate anamnesis, using an adequate sampling modality, adopting a new procedure to quantify microbial populations into asymptomatic ecosystems, and introducing the constant use of PCR analysis, it will be possible to disclose similar precocious problems of couple infertility, in genetically predisposed subjects.