Introduction:

In living donor kidney transplantation, women are the most frequent donors. Nephrology professionals play a very important role in informing about renal replacement treatments and assisting in decision-making.

Objective:

To explore how gender perspective influences living donor renal transplantation from the views of nephrology professionals.

Methodology:

A qualitative phenomenological study was carried out. Thirteen professionals from the Nephrology and Renal Transplant Units in Catalonia participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using a thematic analysis.

Results:

The opinions and perceptions of female nephrology professionals were classified according to the following topics: 1) way of informing about treatments; 2) habitual donation; 3) predisposition to donate and 4) attitude of the donor. Women are more likely to donate due to gender mandates, as well as to inequalities in the labour market. It should be noted that the decision-making process is the same for men and women, that women are better psychologically prepared and recover more quickly from the postoperative period.

Conclusions:

Feminization in kidney donation is the sum of medical, socio-cultural and economic factors. Gender roles influence women’s attitudes and behaviours throughout the living kidney transplantation process. The female nephrology professionals interviewed describe the differences between men and women in kidney donation.