When the researchers factored in menopausal age, they found that women with stage 3, 4, or 5 CKD who were aged 50 years or younger had a mortality rate similar to that of men with same stage disease, whereas women older than 50 years with ESRD had a significantly higher mortality, compared with their male counterparts, especially those of Asian, African American, and Hispanic descent (P less than .001, compared with those of white, non-Hispanic descent).
CKD, and even dialysis, may not be barriers to pregnancy
“One could hypothesize that cardiac remodeling in hemodialysis women may be different than that in hemodialysis men to the extent that it affects mortality,” Dr. Correa said. “However, it is unclear if the survival benefit for dialysis men is owing to the possibility of a selection bias or not. Dialysis women may not be receiving equal access to cardiovascular procedures or surgical interventions (arteriovenous fistula, for example) or women may not be offered adequate hemodialysis to the same extent as men are. Further investigations regarding sex-based differences in dialysis treatment are required.”
He acknowledged certain limitations of the study, including its observational design. “We lacked detailed information regarding the cause of death, dialysis efficiency, types of dialysis accesses, and left ventricular hypertrophy measurements. We did not account for transitions between different hemodialysis modalities [and] we do not have information about distances or traveling time to dialysis units.”
The study’s first author was Kelvin Tran, MD. The researchers reported having no financial disclosures.