[GENDER-SPECIFIC MEDICINE IN UROLOGY]

Gender-specific medicine seeks to identify and understand differences in the ways in which diseases manifest in men and women. This article claims that, in urology, gender awareness is crucial to providing female patients with apposite medical treatment. While the majority of urological patients are men and a number of urological diseases are male-specific, urologic practitioners must nevertheless be familiar with urologic issues in women. In particular, they must be aware of those which present with gender specific signs and symptoms, and thus require different clinical approaches and therapies. In urologic oncology, for example, most malignancies are more common among men, but women are also affected. In Transitional Cell Carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder, women are usually diagnosed at a later stage and their prognosis tends to be poorer. In contrary, in renal cell carcinoma, men are usually diagnosed with more progressive disease, and the prognosis for women was found to be better. In the field of endo-urology, nephrolithiasis is more common in men, although its prevalence in women is rising. In pregnant women, stones in the urinary tract present a diagnostic and treatment challenge because some of the diagnostic and therapeutic tools may put the mother and/or fetus at risk. Understanding this divergence between men and women in urologic disease is vital to treating patients appropriately. The impact of gender differences is addressed in many medical disciplines. This same perception is needed in urology. To provide women with optimal treatment, female urology must focus not only on urologic disorders specific to women, but also on disorders suffered by both genders, which manifest differently in women. Another step toward developing gender-awareness research and treatment in urology is increasing the number of women who choose to specialize in urology.