Chlamydial diagnostic services in the United Kingdom and Eire: current facilities and perceived needs. Royal College of Physicians Committee on Genitourinary Medicine.

Consultant genitourinary physicians were asked about facilities for chlamydial diagnosis and their perception of the need for this service. A wide range of facilities was available, but eight respondents had no access to a chlamydial diagnostic service (CDS). Epidemiological treatment was widely practised as a substitute for chlamydial diagnosis; some clinicians used a CDS as an adjunct to epidemiological treatment, but few clinicians based their treatment of female contacts of men with non-gonococcal urethritis on the results of a test for chlamydial infection. All respondents felt that a CDS was essential in some situations, although there was a difference of opinion about the extent of the CDS. Most clinicians believed that all or most women should be tested, but the need for testing men routinely was more controversial. Although a CDS is costly, many clinicians believed that early diagnosis was a cost effective procedure if it prevented the long term sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease--ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, and probably infertility.