Human cytomegalovirus seroprevalence and risk of seroconversion in a fertility clinic population.
OBJECTIVE
To retrospectively evaluate factors influencing human cytomegalovirus serologic status of couples consulting our fertility clinic.


METHODS
Human cytomegalovirus individual serologic status of 3,227 women and 2,565 men was studied according to age, serologic status of the sexual partner, and presence of children in the family at entry in the clinic. Among 1,906 initially seronegative individuals, human cytomegalovirus seroconversions during follow-up were recorded and correlated to age, serologic status of the sexual partner, and presence of children aged younger than 3 years in the family.


RESULTS
Human cytomegalovirus status at entry in the fertility clinic depended on age, but women were more frequently seropositive (54%) than men (43%), although they were younger (mean age 33 years for women and 37 years for men). The probability of seroconversion of women and men was significantly associated with the presence of children aged younger than 3 years; 35 of 217 women (16%) and 17 of 130 men (13%) living with children aged younger than 3 years seroconverted compared with 37 of 1,066 women (3.4%) and 16 of 493 men (3.2%) without children. Moreover, women's seroconversion was significantly associated with the seropositivity of the sex partner; 13 of 96 (13.5%) women with a cytomegalovirus seropositive partner seroconverted compared with 33 of 452 (7.3%) of those without such a partner.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that human cytomegalovirus is sexually transmitted among couples in our fertility clinic. Safe sex practices should be included in hygiene precaution advice given to pregnant women to avoid human cytomegalovirus contamination.


METHODS
II.
Francisse
Sandrine
S
From the Fertility Clinic and Laboratory of Human Reproduction, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Biologie Humaine et Moléculaire, and Laboratory of Virology and AIDS Reference Laboratory, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Revelard
Philippe
P
De Maertelaer
Viviane
V
Strebelle
Elodie
E
Englert
Yvon
Y
Liesnard
Corinne
C
D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000635:transmission; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors