Gender Disparity and the Relationship Between Living Donors and Recipients in Kidney Transplants in an Organ Transplant Center in Turkey

The literature search on kidney transplant procedures performed in Turkey showed that few publications are available about gender distribution and the relationships between living donors and recipients. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the gender distributions and the relationships between donors and recipients of living-donor kidney transplants performed in a university hospital in Ankara, Turkey. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the hospital records of living kidney donors (1611 cases) and all 1991 kidney recipients who underwent living-donor and deceased-donor kidney transplant procedures in a university hospital between 1985 and 2017. In the study hospital, the annual average number of living-donor kidney transplants increased from 19 to 49 cases (total of 1611 cases) per year during the analyzed period. Among them, 57.8% of all kidney donors were female (P < .05), whereas 74.7% of the recipients were male (P < .05). Two-thirds (60.0%; 228/380) of deceased-donor kidney recipients were male. First-degree blood relatives accounted for most of the donors, as the most common donor-recipient relation was mother to son (67.3%; 327/486; P < .05). Interspousal donation also showed a significant difference between husband to wife and vice versa (36 vs 145; P < .05). There was a male and young predominance among recipients and a female and middleaged predominance among donors of living kidney transplants in this hospital. It is not known whether this might be related to possible differences between males and females in demand of kidneys, to socio-cultural and gender inequalities, or to economic factors. Further research with qualitative components on gender factors should be carried out.