Women victimized by kidney dysfunction more than men

New Delhi: With women's health becoming a pressing matter around the world at large, a survey conducted by SRL diagnostics has revealed that chronic kidney disease in India is more common in women than in men.

As per the survey, abnormalities in kidney function was an average of 11.36 percent higher in women than in men (9.48 percent).

It also showed that kidney function disorders were very common among the elderly, especially those above the age of 85 years.

According to Wikipedia, chronic kidney disease (CKD), also known as a chronic renal disease, “is a progressive loss in kidney function over a period of months or years.”

With the potential to affect people of all ages and races, including children, CKD is a long-term condition where the kidneys don't work right as they should, leading to kidney failure over time.

High blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, high cholesterol are some of the conditions that can cause kidney disease.

"Women have to face multiple socio-economic challenges that keep the concerns of their health secondary to men or family. They fall behind men in terms of timely diagnosis, accesses to healthcare and receiving treatment. Other than lacking awareness about the disease, the biologic conditions such menstrual cycles and pregnancy are conditions purely unique to women, and all this makes them more vulnerable to chronic kidney disease," Sandeep, Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurugram, said in a statement.

With an annual death rate of 19·2 deaths per 100,000 population, chronic kidney disease was ranked 17th among the causes of deaths globally in 2015, as per the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.

In many countries, chronic kidney disease is now among the top five causes of death.

In India, chronic kidney disease was ranked as the eighth leading cause of death, the report said.

Kidneys are responsible for filtration of harmful fluids and wastes from the body. Thus, it is vulnerable to damage by a range of conditions and infections affecting the body such as diabetes, hypertension, bacterial or viral infection, toxins, smoking, and drugs.

"Diabetes and hypertension account for two-thirds of the causes of chronic kidney disease. However, the disease progresses slowly and silently, without any manifestation or obvious symptoms. The disease is known to show its real signs only in advanced stages, and therefore, it becomes all the more important to get periodic tests done if a person is suffering from these conditions," said Dr. Prem Prakash Varma, Senior Consultant, Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.

Symptoms of the disease include, blood in urine, increased or decreased frequency of urination, swelling in legs feet or ankles, feeling tired and fatigued, loss of sleep or trouble sleeping, and episodes of nausea and vomiting, the doctor said.

As kidneys start malfunctioning the levels of these markers go up in the blood. When the kidneys are damaged, they have trouble removing creatinine from blood, the doctors said.

(With IANS inputs)