Gender Bias in Kidney Transplants

According to a report that will be published shortly in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, women over the age of 45 who need a kidney transplant are less likely to get one than men of the same age. This despite the fact that they are no less sick than the men and would benefit just as much as the men by having a kidney transplant.

So why the bias against older women? The researchers aren’t sure, but they speculate that women may be seen as more frail than they actually are by whoever makes the decision to put (or not to put) a female patient on the deceased-donor waiting list or to help them find a live donor. Or, perhaps the women themselves think they are less likely to survive the surgery or benefit from the transplant.

In fact, the researchers found no difference in the survival benefits between men and women, and even between older men and older women. We may need to look carefully at why older women are not getting the transplants they need.