Donor and recipient gender distribution in a Saudi kidney transplant center

Worldwide reports from national renal registries show a donor gender imbalance in living renal transplantation. In these studies women represent on the one hand about 65% of living donors and on the other hand, receive fewer kidneys than men. Because of scarcity of reports on this matter from the Eastern world, we undertook this study to assess the gender demographics of recipients and living donors in our transplant center in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. We retrospectively reviewed our living related transplantations performed from 1992 to 2008 (n=135). Ninety-one males (67.4%) versus 44 females (32.6%) donated a kidney (P=.0000.) The male predominance (n=80; 59.3%) was also noticed among recipients with 80 versus 55 females (40.7%; P=.001). When splitting the results into two periods, 1992 to 1999 versus 2000 to 2008, we noticed a trend to an improved donation rate from females, rising from 29% to 38.7% (P=NS). Further analysis showed that brothers were giving more frequently to brothers than to sisters (38 vs 11; P<.001) and that sisters donated equally to brothers and sisters (12 vs 11; P=NS). Interspousal donation showed no significant difference between husband to wife and vice versa (4 vs 5). Unlike the international experience, our study showed men to be donating more kidneys than women. Sociocultural reasons may have a role in such findings.