Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The importance of sex and gender in basic and clinical research

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Nephrology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

The importance of incorporating factors related to sex and gender in all aspects of research is increasingly recognized. Kidney disease pathophysiology, presentation, response to therapy and outcomes differ by sex and gender, but these factors are often not considered in basic and clinical studies. It is time for nephrology to catch up.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. Sugimoto, C. R., Ahn, Y. Y., Smith, E., Macaluso, B. & Larivière, V. Factors affecting sex-related reporting in medical research: a cross-disciplinary bibliometric analysis. Lancet 393, 550–559 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Chang, D. H., Dumanski, S. M. & Ahmed, S. B. Female sex-specific considerations to improve rigor and reproducibility in cardiovascular research. Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 324, H279–H287 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kwekel, J. C., Desai, V. G., Moland, C. L., Vijay, V. & Fuscoe, J. C. Sex differences in kidney gene expression during the life cycle of F344 rats. Biol. Sex Differ. 4, 14 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Bairey Merz, C. N. et al. Sex and the kidneys: current understanding and research opportunities. Nat. Rev. Nephrol. 15, 776–783 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. US General Accounting Office. Drug Safety: Most Drugs Withdrawn in Recent Years Had Greater Health Risks for Women. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-01-286r.pdf (2001).

  6. Vinson, A. J., Collister, D., Ahmed, S. & Tennankore, K. Underrepresentation of women in recent landmark kidney trials: the gender gap prevails. Kidney Int. Rep. 7, 2526–2529 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Collister, D. et al. Sex and gender in randomized controlled trials of adults receiving maintenance dialysis: a meta-epidemiologic study. Am. J. Kidney Dis. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.10.015 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Logie, C. H., van der Merwe, L. L. A. & Scheim, A. Measuring sex, gender, and sexual orientation: one step to health equity. Lancet 400, 715–717 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Rytz, C. L. et al. Improving the inclusion of transgender and nonbinary individuals in the planning, completion, and mobilization of cardiovascular research. Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 324, H366–H372 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Tannenbaum, C., Norris, C. M. & McMurtry, M. S. Sex-specific considerations in guidelines generation and application. Can. J. Cardiol. 35, 598–605 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sofia B. Ahmed.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ahmed, S.B. The importance of sex and gender in basic and clinical research. Nat Rev Nephrol 20, 2–3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-023-00716-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-023-00716-x

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation