January 11, 2019 – Preventing Mgen

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: Preventing infection with Mgen is the best way to avoid it, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Mgen is shorthand for Mycoplasma genitalium, a sexually transmitted bacterial infection that can cause severe problems in women, including pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility, and for which there is currently no commercially available diagnostic test or effective treatment. And it’s being found more and more often. Yikes. Yet Maria Trent, a sexually transmitted infections expert at Johns Hopkins, says there is something you can do.

Trent: People can protect themselves, so many people are like there’s no test, there’s resistance to the common antibiotics, what can I do? Prevention is critically important. People can use condoms particularly if they’re not in a monogamous relationship or they have more than one partner using condoms can really be protective in terms of the prevention of sexually transmitted infections not only of Mycoplasma but all the others. There’s some data that suggest that it can restore vaginal health for women.  :29

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.