Abstract

Introduction: Genital tuberculosis is a rare condition with different prevalence in different areas. Genital tuberculosis may be asymptomatic or may be associated with atypical symptoms and imitators of other diseases; hence, it is quite essential to determine the prevalence of the disease in order to consider it as a differential diagnosis in patients with similar symptoms. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of genital tuberculosis in Iran. Methods: From the beginning of databases, 2018, International PubMed, Web of Science (WOS) and Google scholar and National Scientific Information Database (SID), Magiran databases were searched for related observational studies that were conducted in Iran including only on Iranian Patients and published in English and Persian languages until 2018 June 30. The quality of the articles was evaluated using the Hoy D tool. Results: Out of 855 initial studies, 6 studies were included in systematic review and meta-analysis, respectively. The overall prevalence of genital tuberculosis in 11756 patients was 6.3 (95 CI: 3.4, 9.1; I-2=93.58). Conclusion: The present systematic study and meta-analysis showed high prevalence of genital tuberculosis in the general population of Iran, providing further proof on the importance of the issue and the attention of the authorities to disease control. Targeted screening, especially for populations at risk, both those with tuberculosis and those in contact with them, especially in the presence of symptoms, seems to be of paramount importance.