Wart virus reduces test-tube baby success: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The same genital wart virus that causes cervical cancer may also reduce a woman's chances of becoming pregnant at a fertility clinic, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Only 23 percent of women infected with human papillomavirus, or HPV, became pregnant during in-vitro fertility or IVF treatments, compared to 57 percent of uninfected women, the researchers found.

"Sexually transmitted diseases are a major cause of infertility. However, possible links between HPV infection and infertility have not been systematically investigated," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

"Unfortunately, the virus is very common among people of reproductive age. Testing for HPV might become a useful addition to the screening tests done for IVF patients and could help physicians to advise them," Dr. Joseph Sanfilippo, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which publishes the journal, said in a statement.

The researchers did not look at the link between fertility in general and HPV.

Dr. Steven Spandorfer and colleagues at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center studied 106 patients scheduled to have IVF. They were all tested for HPV, HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.

The women were all uninfected, except for 17 women who tested positive for HPV. These women were less than half as likely to conceive as women who either had never been infected, or whose bodies had successfully cleared the virus.

Genital HPV infection is very common, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 20 million people in the United States alone are currently infected with HPV, the CDC says. At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives -- more than 6.2 million Americans every year.

HPV can cause cervical cancer, which kills about 300,000 women worldwide each year, including about 4,000 in the United States.

Merck and Co. this year won a license for a vaccine called Gardasil, which prevents infection with the most dangerous strains of HPV. Vaccine experts recommend that most young girls receive it before they become sexually active.