*Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the qualitative outcomes of living kidney donors by gender.

*Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive adult living kidney transplant donor electronic medical records from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2017. Differences across compared groups for continuous variables were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test and for binary variables using the chi-square test. All p-values were 2-sided and <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

*Results: There were 275 living donor kidney transplants performed with 120 male donors and 155 female donors. The racial groups included Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, Asian and Other. When evaluating the subjective complications by gender and race, Caucasian females had the greatest number of total subjective complications (p=0.002) and subjective GI complications (p<0.001) during the donor nephrectomy admission. Hispanic males demonstrated the greatest number of subjective wound pain related complaints post discharge (p=0.047). There we no statistical differences in patient reported perceived functional capacity at 6 months or 1-year post donor nephrectomy between racial gender groups.

*Conclusions: This study demonstrated differences in gender perception outcomes of living kidney donation based on race. These results are significant because an understanding of the donation experience through the perspective of the living donor is essential in aiding healthcare professionals to tailor their approach when educating potential donors. This allows potential living donors a more realistic expectation of the donation process in hopes of making for a more positive experience.

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