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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you're over 45 and need a kidney, it's better to be a man.
According to Johns Hopkins researchers, older women are significantly less likely to receive a donated kidney than older men. Similar results were not seen, however, for younger women, who were just as likely as younger men to receive a donated organ.
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The study involved an analysis of more than 560,000 patients who were diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease between 2000 and 2005. While men and women ages 18 to 45 had similar access to kidneys, access for women declined as they aged. In the 46- to 55-year-old age group, women had 3 percent less access to donated organs. Among those age 56 to 65, access was 15 percent lower, at age 66 to 75 it was 29 percent smaller, and by the time women topped age 75 access declined by 59 percent.
The gender disparities seen the study were mainly linked to limited referral to transplant waiting lists. If an older woman could make it onto the list, her chances of getting a kidney were about the same as a man's. The study also showed women had as good, or slightly better survival rates after a kidney transplant than men, suggesting poorer outcomes cannot be blamed for the lower access to donor organs for older women.
The researchers believe more needs to be done to ensure older women receive their fair share of donated organs. "Knowing that the gender disparity is limited to older women indicates that efforts should be made to identify specific differences between older men and older women -- rather than general differences between all men and women -- in an effort to minimize the gender disparity in access to transplantation," study author Dorry Segev, M.D., was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Society Nephrology, published online January 7, 2009
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