Is bacterial vaginosis associated with autoimmune antibody positivity?

Objective To evaluate the association between bacterial vaginosis (BV) and autoimmune antibody positivity. Method We evaluated Papanicolaou‐stained cervicovaginal smears of 210 patients with poor obstetric history who were admitted to a special preconception counselling programme. Cytological specimens with various types of microorganisms except for BV, epithelial cell abnormalities and other non‐neoplastic findings, including inflammation were excluded from the cohort in addition to patients with autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. The remaining study population (n = 121) was divided into two groups of patients with autoimmune antibody positivity (study group, n = 80) and patients without antibody positivity (control group, n = 41). Results The rate of BV was demonstrated to be 13.8% and 2.4% in the study and control groups respectively (P = .042). We also demonstrated that the anti‐nuclear antibody was positive in 58.3% of the cases with BV. Conclusion BV was found more frequently in patients with autoimmune antibody positivity to a statistically significant degree. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal infection in women but the mechanisms behind its pathogenesis and recurrence are not clearly understood. This first study investigating the association between BV and autoimmune antibodies found BV to be more frequent in autoimmune antibody positive women. The authors recommend further studies to determine if autoimmunity increases the risk of BV, or if BV is a risk factor for autoantibody positivity.