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Kidneys and women's health: key challenges and considerations

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 14, pages 203–210 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

The theme of World Kidney Day 2018 is 'kidneys and women's health: include, value, empower'. To mark this event, Nature Reviews Nephrology asked four leading researchers to discuss key considerations related to women's kidney health, including specific risk factors, as well as the main challenges and barriers to care for women with kidney disease and how these might be overcome. They also discuss policies and systems that could be implemented to improve the kidney health of women and their offspring and the areas of research that are needed to improve the outcomes of kidney disease in women.

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Figure 1: The male:female ratio of the incidence of end-stage renal disease across the lifespan.
Figure 2: Key factors that underlie poor kidney health and adverse outcomes in women.

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Acknowledgements

L.L. is grateful to have worked with and learned from thousands of women patients, as well as innumerable wise women colleagues near and far, all of whom have informed her answers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde I and General Hospital Yaounde, Yaounde, 5408, BP, Cameroon

    Gloria E. Ashuntantang

  2. Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, 55902, MN, USA

    Vesna D. Garovic

  3. Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Rua Botucatu 740, Vila Clementino, 04023–900, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ita P. Heilberg

  4. Department of Medicine, Section of Renal Medicine and Vascular Inflammation, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK

    Liz Lightstone

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  1. Gloria E. Ashuntantang
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All authors contributed equally to the preparation of this manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gloria E. Ashuntantang, Vesna D. Garovic, Ita P. Heilberg or Liz Lightstone.

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Ashuntantang, G., Garovic, V., Heilberg, I. et al. Kidneys and women's health: key challenges and considerations. Nat Rev Nephrol 14, 203–210 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2017.188

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