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Chronic kidney disease affects 1 in 10 women globally, yet it's routinely missed. The American Heart Association's new scientific statement highlights how standard diagnostic tools, lack of sex-specific research, and overlooked reproductive health factors are leaving millions of women without proper care — and calls for urgent reform.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects roughly 1 in 10 women worldwide, yet it remains one of the most underdiagnosed and undertreated conditions in women's health. A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in Circulation, is sounding the alarm — and calling for a major overhaul in how kidney disease is detected and managed in women.
A big part of the problem is the diagnostic tools themselves. The standard measure of kidney function — serum creatinine — is influenced by muscle mass, which women naturally have less of. That means a creatinine level that looks "normal" in a woman could actually signal significant kidney dysfunction. Add in slower adoption of evidence-based guidelines for women and less routine CKD surveillance, and it's a recipe for missed diagnoses.
The statement also spotlights how reproductive health milestones — pregnancy, menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome, and autoimmune conditions — can both reveal and accelerate kidney disease in ways that current care models don't adequately account for.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: Kidney disease is closely tied to heart health and metabolic risk. Closing the sex gap in CKD diagnosis and research could improve outcomes for millions of women — and the AHA is pushing clinicians and researchers to act now.
