Fair share: Women kidney recipients on rise

AHMEDABAD: For a long time, women have largely been at the giving end of organ transplants. The numbers speak for themselves: More than 66%, or two-thirds, of living kidney donors at centres such as the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC) and in India overall, are women. However, the ratio is inverse when it comes to receiving organs for transplant, with experts putting women at less than 30% of the total recipients.

However, there has been some balance. "With women getting two additional points in allocation of cadaver organs by the State Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organization (SOTTO) software, the percentage crossed the 50% mark to reach 58%. for the first time in 2023. The allocations in 2024 so far too have been above 50%," said Dr Vivek Kute, organizing chairman for the 34th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT) held in the city from Oct 17 to 20.

To put the figure in perspective, in the last 10 years, the allocation of kidneys from cadaver donations at IKDRC – the state's biggest govt-run organ transplant centre – was 36%, said Dr Kute. The data was shared during the ISOT conference. "Multiple socioeconomic factors have resulted in a very skewed gender ratio in living organ donation, and we are finally seeing some parity in allocation, even as living kidney donation still follows the same trend," said the professor of nephrology at IKDRC.

The picture is similar across Gujarat. In 2023, compared to 73 men receiving kidneys from deceased donors, there were 82 women, or 53% of the total recipients. Till Oct in 2024, there have been 123 kidney transplants from cadaver donations in Gujarat, according to SOTTO figures, out of which 59, or 48%, are for women patients, indicating parity.

Dr Manoj Gumber, a nephrologist and kidney transplant surgeon with Apollo Hospital, said that when it comes to kidney diseases, there is not much difference between men and women. "But factors such as men being the breadwinners of the family and women expected to donate out of love have made them donors ever since the start of the transplant programmes. With an increase in the number of patients and those in need of a kidney due to the rise in diseases and several patients coming for a second-time transplant, the need of the hour is to create awareness and give women their due," he said.