Female Genital Tuberculosis Among Infertile Women and Its Contributions to Primary and Secondary Infertility: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Female genital tuberculosis (FGTB) is a widespread infectious disease among young women. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prevalence of FGTB among infertile women and its contribution to primary and secondary infertility. PubMed, MEDLINE®, WorldCat, The Lens, direct Google search, Google Scholar and ResearchGate were searched from 1971 to July 17, 2021 using the following terms: “prevalence”, “epidemiology”, “urogenital tuberculosis”, “FGTB”, “infertile women”, “infertility complaints” and “FGTB testing methods”. Data were extracted and a meta-analysis was performed. A total of 42 studies were selected with a total of 30,918 infertile women. Of these, the pooled prevalence of FGTB was 20% (95% confidence interval: 15–25%, I2 = 99.94%) and the prevalence of overall infertility, primary infertility and secondary infertility among FGTB population were 88%, 66% and 34%, respectively. The proportion of FGTB is remarkable among infertile women globally. The biggest burden of the disease is present in low-income countries followed by lower-to-middle- and upper-to-middle-income countries.

Keywords: Female Genital Tuberculosis; Female Infertility; Worldwide; Prevalence of FGTB; Mycobacterium Tuberculosis; Infertility.