Arthritis and Women

Filed in archive Arthritis on May 23, 2007

In an article by Carol & Richard Eustice, writing at Arthritis About.com, rheumatoid arthritis affects women and men differently, with women getting the dirty end of the stick:

Rheumatoid arthritis affects over 2.1 million adults in the United States. Three times more women than men have rheumatoid arthritis. Study results regarding the association between gender and likelihood of remission were presented at EULAR, the Annual European Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism.

However, according to the Science Blog:

Although women are three times more likely than men to have severe arthritis which would benefit from joint replacement, they are less likely to have ever discussed the surgical procedure with their doctors, according to a study published in the April 6 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study also found women experience worse symptoms and suffer greater disability due to arthritis yet are less likely to undergo joint replacement surgery, or arthroplasty.

The question, now, is why is this so? Researchers at University of Toronto are looking for the answer.