With a simple swab test, scientists can now monitor the host of microbes living in the human vagina. This new scientific innovation may help doctors assess pregnancy risks much more efficiently. A new study published in a peer-reviewed journal called Nature Communications stated that the test could come in handy in detecting and preventing pregnancy risks like bacterial infections and pre-term births.
This simple test can provide a metabolic profile in less than three minutes which is a major achievement because the current technology takes about eight hours to produce the same results. This innovation can also help medical practitioners identify inflammatory markers which indicate the presence of a bacterial infection in the body. These infections if gone undetected, can otherwise ascend into the vaginal canal and into the cervix, causing pre-term births and pregnancy losses in expectant mothers.
Early diagnosis can help facilitate targeted treatments, quicker care, and the careful use of antibiotics. This can be life-saving as globally, infection pre-term births are the leading causes of death in children.
The study also analysed over 1,000 samples from about 400 pregnant women to conclude that, unlike the gut microbe, the more diverse microbiomes found in the vagina, the higher the rates of pre-term births and inflammation. The presence of a bacteria called the Lactobacillus crispatus is a good sign but when other microbes deplete these species, complications can arise.
This test doesn’t clearly indicate which one could go into early labour but it does highlight some risk factors that doctors can keep an eye on. This isn’t surprising since pre-term births can be caused by several factors including non-microbial and non-immune system-related causes like high blood pressure, age of the mother as well as environmental reasons.
The study also found that procedures like a cervical stitch–a treatment to prevent pre-term labour–can also disrupt the vaginal microbiomes. This may lead to bacterial infections that increase the chances of early labour. According to Philip Bennet, an author of the study and researcher at the Imperial College, UK, this test could go a long way in understanding other aspects of healthcare like HIV, HPV, IVF failures, preventing miscarriages, and cervical cancer.