Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
Signs and symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease may include:
- Pain in your lower abdomen and pelvis
- Heavy vaginal discharge with an unpleasant odor
- Irregular menstrual bleeding
- Pain during intercourse
- Low back pain
- Fever, fatigue, diarrhea or vomiting
- Painful or difficult urination
PID may cause only minor signs and symptoms or none at all. Asymptomatic PID is especially common when the infection is due to chlamydia. The lack of signs and symptoms increases the likelihood that you'll pass chlamydia to other sexual partners and experience serious damage to your reproductive organs.
When to see a doctor
Go the emergency room if you experience the following severe signs and symptoms of PID:
- Severe pain low in your abdomen
- Vomiting
- Signs of shock, such as fainting
- Fever, with a temperature higher than 101 F (38.3 C)
If your signs and symptoms aren't severe, but they're persistent, see your doctor as soon as possible. Genital sores or rash, discharge with an odor, painful urination, or bleeding between menstrual cycles can be associated with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). If these signs and symptoms appear, stop having sex and see your doctor soon. Prompt treatment of an STD can help prevent PID.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease fact sheet. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/std/PID/STDFact-PID.htm. Accessed March 31, 2009.
- Hemsell DL. Gynecologic infections. In: Schorge JO, et al. Williams Gynecology. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3150553. Accessed April 1, 2009.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp077.cfm. Accessed April 1, 2009.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease: Frequently asked questions. The National Women's Health Information Center. http://womenshealth.gov/faq/pelvic-inflammatory-disease.cfm. Accessed March 31, 2009.
- Trigg BG, et al. Sexually transmitted infections and pelvic inflammatory disease in women. The Medical Clinics of North America. 2008;92:1083.
- Livengood CH, et al. Clinical features and diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 31, 2009.
- Livengood CH. Pathogenesis of and risk factors for pelvic inflammatory disease. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 31, 2009.
