ABSTRACT
Trichomonas vaginalis is a flagellated, singlecell, eukaryotic, protozoan parasite that resides extracellularly in the human female lower genital tract and the male urethra. In symptomatic women, T. vaginalis is a common cause of mucopurulent cervicitis and vaginitis. There is no relation between the number of organisms present in the vagina and clinical signs and symptoms. This indicates that individual host immune and genetic factors, as well as the composition of the vaginal microbiota, influence the consequences of a T. vaginalis infection. The treatment for the symptomatic gynecologic patient with T. vaginalis vaginitis is well established and, in most instances, not controversial. The overall prevalence of trichomoniasis in young adults in the United States was 2.3", in a gene amplification–based survey of the urine of men and women for T. vaginalis. Pregnancy raises a series of still unresolved questions for the physician who discovers a Trichomonas infection in an asymptomatic patient.
