Transplant Digest Fall/Winter 2015/2016, Issue No. 19
Why Do Women Donate Kidneys More than Men?
In this issue ...
Dr. Ramesh Prasad
Why Do Women Donate Kidneys More than Men?
Most people who donate a kidney are simply put, good people. Yet it is commonly observed that women are more likely to donate a kidney than men (about 60:40). This is true regardless of whether the intended recipient is a man or woman. Why this is has not been subjected to any kind of detailed investigation in recent years. If this issue has interested you before, then you may be able to identify what you think is the main reason in the next few paragraphs.
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St. Mike’s Becomes Hollywood Men experience kidney disease more North for the Filming of often than women. It is well known Transplant Companions that men outnumber women in endInaugural Transplant Champions stage renal disease (ESRD), a requirement Workshop a Resounding for transplantation, by about 2:1. This may Success! mean that there are less available male live Letter to the Editor donors. Men may also have ESRD causes that are more A Mother’s Story amenable to transplantation. If more men die before reaching ESRD, then there are fewer Be a Transplant Champion men who have reached ESRD who are too sick to receive a transplant, and those that do reach ESRD are healthier than women who reach ESRD. Men also have poorer kidney function relative to their initial function after donation, and so may be turned down from donating as a result. They are also not “sensitized” with antibodies in the way that women can become sensitized after pregnancy, and so their women partners are able to give them their kidneys more easily. These “medical” explanations are what many people believe to be why fewer men donate kidneys.
However, all these reasons can be challenged. Relatively few people in the population have ESRD or a partner with ESRD. There is still a huge general population pool from which men and women can donate equally. There are also more men among deceased donors (about 56%). Men have more kidney function to give when they die, are more likely to die from trauma, and may therefore be more readily accepted as donors by transplant physicians. Yet more women sign up to be donors, and women live longer than men and therefore have longer to live with one kidney afterwards. Women should actually be turned down as living donors because they have less kidney function, but more women are still donors.
TRANSPLANT DIGEST FALL/WINTER 2015/2016, Issue No.19