Gender and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Men and women differ in susceptibility and exposure to environmental risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but various endogenous sex-determined differences in immune reactions might play a role in IBD pathogenesis as well. There is a sex-specific pattern of extra-intestinal manifestation and men and women suffer from different long-term complications of the disease. This review focuses on the gender and sex dimorphic disease profile and outlines the potential mechanisms of sex-specific pathogenesis in the view of current understanding of sex-specific immunity.