Is celiac disease more common in women?

Question: Is celiac disease more common in women?

Answer: Celiac disease is diagnosed in women more often than in men. The gender difference is marked, with one report in 2008 from the University of Rome, Italy noting that celiac disease diagnosis is twice as frequent in girls and women as in males.

In addition, researchers have suggested that there may also be some gender differences in the way the disease manifests itself in celiacs who are not diagnosed until adulthood.

In 2005, researchers at Columbia University in New York City said that, on average, men seem to have greater malabsorption when they’re diagnosed. The researchers also said that men with celiac disease tend to have other “female-predominant” autoimmune diseases. (In general, autoimmune diseases are more common in women.)

Furthermore, there may even be some gender differences in the way susceptibility to the disease is inherited. For example, the Italian study showed that when a father has celiac disease, his daughters are more likely than his sons to someday develop the disease. (This doesn’t mean his sons won’t develop celiac disease, just that the odds for the disease are greater in his daughters.)

_Sources:

_{Bai D, Brar P, Holleran S, et al. Effect of gender on the manifestations of celiac disease: evidence for greater malabsorption in men. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology 2005;40:183-7.}

_{Megiorni F, Mora B, Bonamico M, et al. HLA-DQ and susceptibility to celiac disease: evidence for gender differences and parent-of-origin effects. American Journal of Gastroenterology 2008;103:997-1003. Epub 2008 Jan 2.}