title: Gender imbalance among donors in living kidney transplantation: the Norwegian experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In living donor (LD) kidney transplantation, a predominance of female-to-male donations has been observed. Gender demographics of living donors and outcomes of LD kidney transplantations in Norway were assessed, as this has not been explored previously.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the Norwegian Renal Registry of first LD kidney transplantations (n = 1319) in the period 1985-2002 were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of all LD was female (57.8%; P<0.001), while 62.7% of the recipients were men (P<0.001). Females dominated as donors in the spousal group and the parental group (P<0.0001). However, no gender difference was observed in the parental group when the recipients were <30 years old (P = 0.65). In opposite-sex pairs, female-to-male donations were as expected based on the incidence of end-stage renal disease. Donor sex affected neither the incidence of acute rejections nor graft survival. Serum creatinine was higher in renal allografts from female donors to male recipients in the first 4 years after transplantation. Donor age also had significant impact on graft function measured as serum creatinine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gender disparities in LD transplantation result from a higher proportion of female-to-female and a lower proportion of male-to-male donations than expected. Both donor age and donor sex influence graft function during the first years. Graft survival and acute rejection episodes appear not to be affected by donor sex in LD kidney transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacotherapeutics, University of Oslo, Norway. cecilia.oien@stolav.no
authors.forename: Cecilia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Øien
authors.forename: Anna Varberg
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Reisaeter
authors.forename: Torbjørn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leivestad
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pfeffer
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fauchald
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Os
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D012737:Sex Factors