Gender Disparities in Ocular Inflammatory Disorders*

Abstract

Ocular inflammatory disorders disproportionately affect women, and the majority of affected women are of childbearing age. The role of sex or reproductive hormones has been proposed in many other inflammatory or autoimmune disorders, and findings from non-ocular autoimmune diseases suggest a complex interaction between sex hormones, genetic factors and the immune system. However, despite the age and sex bias, factors that influence this disparity are complicated and unclear. This review aims to evaluate the gender disparities in prevalence, incidence and severity of the most common infectious and non-infectious ocular inflammatory disorders.

• Disparity
• gender
• ocular inflammation
• sex
• uveitis

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

None of the authors have any commercial relationship with regards to the subject of this manuscript. H.N.S., C.C.C., D.U. and A.F.'s work has been supported by the National Eye Institute Intramural Research Program. D.A.G. is supported by an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (NY).