Epidemiology

Internal medicine

Pathology

Population

Female sex

Biology

Aspergillosis

Immunology

Mucormycosis

Blastomycosis

Paracoccidioidomycosis

Cryptococcosis

Histoplasmosis

Medicine

Environmental health

Mycoses

Biological sex, which comprises differences in host sex hormone homeostasis and immune responses, can have a substantial impact on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Comprehensive data on sex distributions in invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) are lacking. In this review, we performed a literature search of in vitro/animal studies, clinical studies, systematic reviews and meta‐analyses of invasive fungal infections. Females represented 51.2% of invasive candidiasis cases, mostly matching the proportions of females among the general population in the United States and Europe (&gt;51%). In contrast, other IFDs were overrepresented in males, including invasive aspergillosis (51% males), mucormycosis (60%), cryptococcosis (74%), coccidioidomycosis (70%), histoplasmosis (61%) and blastomycosis (66%). Behavioural variations, as well as differences related to biological sex, may only in part explain these findings. Further investigations concerning the association between biological sex/gender and the pathogenesis of IFDs are warranted.

Let's talk about sex characteristics—As a risk factor for invasive fungal diseases