Mycoplasma genitalium was originally isolated in 1980 from urethral specimens of two male patients suffering from non-gonococcal urethritis in the genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. Mycoplasma genitalium is a small pathogenic bacterium that lives on the ciliated epithelialcells of the urinary and genital tracts in humans. Its existence was first reported in 1981, and was eventually identified as a new species of Mycoplasma in 1983.