Severity of Gout in Women
Title: Severity of female gout course
Authors: Barskova VG, et al.
Publication: Ter Arkh. 2005;77(5):58-62.
The authors wanted to compare the severity of gout in males and
females. To do this, they enrolled 17 females and 17 males, matched
by age and disease duration.
The authors found that gout occurs more frequently in women than
in men – probably because of greater instance of high blood
pressure, kidney failures, and use of diuretics or medications
that increase the production of urine.
In women, gout is usually more severe, occurs earlier, happen
in multiple joints, have lingering arthritis symptoms, and rapid
formation of gout deposits or tophi. Women are also more susceptible
to endocrine diseases, such as artificial menopause, dysmenorrheal
or painful menstruation, and euthyroid goiter or thyroid enlargement.
The authors conclude that in absence of sex- and age-related
differences, they noticed that women have more severe cases of
gout.
