Women more prone to kidney ailments: Survey

Tirupati: World Kidney Day, which will be observed on second Thursday of March every year, coincides with International Women’s Day this year and the theme for this year was aptly taken as “Kidneys & Women’s Health: Include, Value, Empower.”

While chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been a serious threat universally, the incidence was higher in women than in men. According to statistics, the prevalence was 14 per cent in women whereas it was 12 per cent in men, said a senior nephrologist in SVIMS.

He said there will be five stages in kidney disease and most people could not realise the symptoms as they were unaware of them until the disease enters advanced stages. So, in most cases patients consult the doctor in fifth stage only and eventually dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed to live, he said. 

According to head of nephrology department in SVIMS, Tirupati, Prof R Ram, pregnancy-related kidney disease is increasing which becomes a cause of concern. Every care must be taken during pregnancy and maintain personal hygiene, he said and added if any abnormal symptoms were found, they should immediately consult a doctor.  

Another factor that contributes to kidney disease was due to urinary tract infection, which makes women difficult to come out of it, he said and added normally women are more anaemic than men and blood loss will also be more, which makes things from bad to worst. 

Stating urinary tract infection can be somehow avoided by maintaining better personal hygiene and taking more water, he said especially women must ensure that there should be no constipation problem.  Dr Ram said, in India maternal mortality was also high due to insufficient access to timely prenatal care and kidney disease was associated with maternal health conditions also.

He said lack of women empowerment can be seen in providing treatment for women with kidney ailments. “If a man needs a kidney, his wife or mother come forward to give whereas for a woman neither husband nor father do not come forward. Even for dialysis men come regularly but women were normally allowed to go,” he observed.

This discrimination also made women vulnerable to risk of deaths as they were not provided proper treatment by their husbands. This was a big social problem and needs to be addressed, he felt.

Dr N Sameera, a senior resident doctor in Nephrology department of SVIMS said, “Women after 20 years should have regular check-ups. Especially, when they found swelling in legs and face and when the urine colour is reddish, they should consult the doctor without any delay.”  Everyone should take more fluids and should keep away from taking cool drinks and pain killers, she advised. 

By V Pradeep Kumar