Sex and illness

A sex-specific illness is an illness that occurs only in people of one sex. There are other sex-related illnesses that are more common to one sex, or which manifest differently in each sex. Neither concept should be confused with sexually-transmitted disease, which is a completely different concept. Sex-related illnesses have various causes:\n* sex-linked genetic illnesses\n* parts of the reproductive system that are specific to one sex\n* social causes that relate to the gender role expected of that sex in a particular society.\n* different levels of reporting or diagnosis in each gender. Examples of sex-related illnesses in humans: Men:\n* prostate cancer and other diseases of the male reproductive system only occur in men\n* certain genetic diseases, such as colour blindness, occur more frequently in men. They are caused by sex-linked, recessive genes carried on the non-homologous portion of the X chromosome.\n* Men are more likely to succeed in committing suicide, and women are more likely to attempt it. Women:\n* 99% of breast cancer occurs in women\n* ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and other diseases of the female reproductive system only occur in women\n* More women than men suffer from Sjögren's syndrome, scleroderma, and osteoporosis\n* in Western cultures, more women than men suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia\n* Women are more likely to suffer from unipolar clinical depression (although bipolar disorder appears to affect both sexes equally)\n* Psychologists are more likely to diagnose women than men with borderline or histrionic personality disorder. There is no current agreement on whether this is because of a real underlying difference between the sexes, or simply because of deeply ingrained social attitudes.