Vaginal microbiota and fertility: an integrative review

The vaginal microbiota is made up of countless microorganisms that help to make it healthy and resistant to invasion by pathobionts, and studies suggest that there is an association between fertility and the balance/unbalance of this microenvironment. The aim of this study was to learn more about the vaginal microbiota and its influence on female (in)fertility. This is an integrative review guided by the steps of the PRISMA flowchart, searching for scientific articles in the BVS, Nature, PubMed and Scielo databases published in the years 2018-2022, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used, and they were categorized into levels of evidence. This review consisted of twelve articles which show that vaginal dysbiosis causes changes in the metabolome of this environment, triggering inflammatory activation, which impacts on female fertility. In this sense, there is a need for further research into the interaction of microorganisms with each other and with male gametes, in eubiosis and vaginal dysbiosis, in order to facilitate or restrict their passage to the uterus and achieve successful fertilization.