Gender specific medicine in liver diseases: A point of view

Abstract

Gender medicine focuses on the patho-physiological, clinical, prevention and treatment differences in diseases that are equally represented in men and women. The purpose of gender medicine is to ensure that each individual man and woman receives the best treatment possible based on scientific evidence. The concept of “gender” includes not only the sexual characteristics of individuals but also physiological and psychological attributes of men and women, including risk factors, protective/aggravating effects of sexual hormones and variances linked to genetics and corporal structures that explain biological and physiological differences between men and women. It is very important to consider all the biological, physiological, functional, psychological, social and cultural characteristics to provide patients with individualized disease management. Herein, we critically analyze the literature regarding gender differences for diseases and acquired conditions of the most representative hepatic pathologies: primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, non alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease, and viral chronic hepatitis B and C. The last section addresses hemochromatosis, which is a prevalent iron overload disorder in the Caucasian population. This review aims to describe data from the literature concerning viral chronic hepatitis during pregnancy, management during pregnancy and delivery, and new effective drugs for the prevention of maternal infection transmission without significant adverse effects or complications.

Keywords: Gender; Liver disease; Primary biliary cirrhosis; Autoimmune hepatitis; Viral chronic hepatitis B; Viral chronic hepatitis C; Non alcoholic fatty liver disease; Alcoholic liver disease

Core tip: Gender medicine focuses on the patho-physiological, clinical, prevention and treatment differences in diseases that are equally represented in men and women. The concept of “gender” includes not only the sexual characteristics of individuals but also physiological and psychological attributes of men and women. In this review, we critically analyze the literature regarding gender differences for diseases and acquired conditions of the most representative hepatic pathologies: primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, non alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease, viral chronic hepatitis B and C, and hemochromatosis (the prevalent iron overload disorder in the Caucasian population).