In this article, we are going to talk about the connection between gout and women. Does these two really are connected with each other? I mean, is the condition more common to women or in men? Read on to this article and you’ll get to know the answers. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the read. Worry less, because it is for a guarantee that you will learn a lot from this article!
Is gout more common to women?
Even though gout is generally considered a disease for men, gout in women is also a thing. A health survey conducted in the USA in 2008, they found that 4 percent of the women in their 60s and 6 percent of women in their 80s experience gout. among the gout sufferers under 65 years old, there are about 4 times more men with gout than in women. Furthermore, the average age when women develop gout in comparison to men is commonly around 7-12 years greater. Moreover, the incidence of gout in women actually peaks at 80 years old and above.
In the actual fact, women cover about 5 percent of all the gout patients. Nevertheless, the incidence in women has already doubled over the past 2 decades. For the reason that gout is often thought to be a men’s disease, it is often misdiagnosed in women. Or, the diagnosis is quite delayed oftentimes. Furthermore, although women can have the same levels of blood uric acid as men, women still have a much lower risk of developing gout than men. Those women with high blood uric acid level have a significantly lower risk of acquiring gout than men who have an identical level of uric acid.
Gout and Women: Signs and Symptoms
In one large study that has examined the condition by gender, the investigators discovered that the use of diuretics, alcohol consumption, old age, high blood pressure, as well as obesity were considered to be some of the risk factors, not just to men, but also to women. Furthermore, some other gender differences discovered by the research states the higher amount of women over men underwent a high blood pressure and were being treated with diuretics increasing the risk of acquiring gout.
Moreover, if a woman drinks more than 7oz. of spirits, then this will double the risk of developing gout in men; this is triple when it comes to women. Not just that, if you are drinking a lot of beer, this will just double the risk of gout development in men. And to women, well, this will increase the risk for about 7 times. Additionally, if you are an obese woman or man, the risk of developing gout was three times as much.
Gout and Women: Menopause
What separates men from women when it comes to gout is menopause. This occurs only in men after 51 years old (on an average). What happens at this stage is that a woman’s body radically cuts the production of estrogen. It is often believed that the estrogen is beneficial for the kidneys in removing the uric acid. This is the reason why, after the menopausal stage, the blood uric acid of women tends to increase.
For most of the menopausal women, the symptoms of gout typically begin in the large toes and then affect the wrists, knees, and the ankles. Furthermore, the onset of gout may take place at any given point in the menopausal stage. This is since the kidneys keep on losing the support of the estrogen.
There are about 70% of women who develop gout that is more possible to suffer from osteoarthritis. This is in comparison to the 37% of men. Additionally, studies show that those women who had a family history of the disease are more prone to the disease. Moreover, women are also more at risk of developing tophi over men even though the bodily location can be a bit different.
Treatments are actually the same in women as in men. Usually, the medications that are used in treating the condition are NSAIDs, febuxostat, colchicine, and allopurinol. It is a must to stop taking diuretics, maintain an ideal body weight, exercise regularly, and eat a healthy diet. It is always a matter of improving your lifestyle and eating the proper diet to live longer and to avoid conditions like gout.