Managing Gout in Women: Current Perspectives

Gout is a common inflammatory arthritis that tends to affect significantly more men than women. However, female gout patients are more likely to have comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and renal dysfunction. Furthermore, they experience a greater disease burden due to gout than males. While nonbiological causes may possibly contribute to this sex discrepancy in burden, this raises questions regarding whether current gout pharmacotherapies are as efficacious in females as they are in males. In this review, we examine how the clinical profile of female gout patients differs from male patients; we then survey the literature for data on outcomes for female gout patients treated with urate-lowering therapies for chronic management of gout as well as commonly used agents for acute flares. We also discuss considerations for managing gout in women during pregnancy and lactation.