Women's Access to Donated Kidneys Declines with Age

WASHINGTON—Younger women have equivalent access to kidney transplants compared with their male counterparts, but older women receive transplants much less frequently than older men, according to a study appearing in the March issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

The results suggest that steps are needed to ensure that women are provided with equal opportunities to receive kidney transplants as they age, according to the study.

Researchers have reported that women have less access to kidney transplants than men, but this recent study indicates that this disparity does not affect all women. Dorry Segev, MD, of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md., and his colleagues discovered this by studying the U.S. Renal Data System, which collects, analyzes, and distributes information about end-stage kidney disease in this country. Their analysis included 563,197 patients with ESRD diagnosed between 2000 and 2005.

The investigators found that while young women in this group had equivalent access to transplantation when compared with their male counterparts, access for older women decreased significantly.