Women Donate, Men Receive: Gender Disparity Among Renal Donors

Abstract

Background: Renal transplant is the treatment method of choice to patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) but the limited numbers of donors present major challenge to the practice on a global basis. One of the most feasible leads to resolve this shortage is living-related kidney donation. But research has always shown that there is a strong gender disparity in the rate of organ donation with women relatively donating more than men yet mostly men are those that receive organ transplant. This gap is believed to occur as a result of complicated social and cultural family interactions that place the role of care giving to women and make the health of male leaders in most houses an ultimate priority. It is essential that the imbalance is understood in order to tackle the ethical issue and enhance gender equity within the healthcare setup.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess gender-related trends in living kidney donation at the Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD) and to examine donor–recipient relationships within the study population.

Study design: A Cross sectional study.

Place and duration of study. Department of Urology and Transplant Institute of Kidney Diseases from jan 2017 to jan 2020

Methods:

This cross-sectional study was Conducted in the  Department of Urology and Transplant  Institute of Kidney Diseases from jan 2017 to jan 2020. There were 94 living renal donors. Information on demographic, gender and donor-recipient relationship were recorded. There were 63 female and 31 male donors out of the total donor figure. Donors were sisters to brothers/ sisters (n=28), wives to husbands (n=19), mothers to children (n=10) and daughters to parents (n=6) among females. Only one husband supplied a donation to his wife among men, yet there were donors who were brothers to siblings (n=22), sons to parents (n=6), and fathers to children (n=2). To understand the difference, statistical analysis was done using chi-square test, where p <0.05 was taken to be significant.

Results:

On the study population, 67 percent of the female donors and only 33 percent of males were sampled. Female members The most common prior donors were sisters (44%), wives (30%), mother (16%), and daughters (10%). Brothers on the other hand were the leading contributors of male donors (71%), followed by sons (19%), fathers (6%), and husbands (3%). The difference in gender donation patterns was considerably low p < 0.05. It is worth noting that nineteen wives made donations to their spouses as opposed to one husband making donation to his wife, a glowingly evident inequality of spousal donation.

Conclusion:

Our finding shows that gender inequality is evident in renal donation as women are the ones who bear the greatest burden of providing living kidney donation especially the sisters, wives and mothers. These results would mean that there is a strong social-cultural expectation which may influence women to act more as donors. The initiatives that should be conducted in the public health area include interventions, ethical protections, and publicity making sure to help achieve equity and increase male involvement in organ donation.