If you got to have a heart.....

transplant it may be best if the donor is the same gender as you. From AP-

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Turns out men and women really are different at heart: New research finds that heart transplant patients have better odds of survival and a lower risk of rejection if they get organs from donors of the same sex.

Size may be part of the explanation. Men's hearts are bigger than women's and have greater pumping capacity, and men who get men's hearts fare better. But doctors think differences in hormones or immune systems between the sexes may also play a role.

I'd think hormonal differences could lead to rejection. Funny I wouldn't have even paid attention to this news, except for the fact I just had open heart surgery three months ago tomorrow. I'm back to being my sarcastic nitpicking self or in other words I'm doing great. On Friday I begin cardiac rehab.

The study was paid for by the federal government and led by Dr. Eric Weiss, a cardiac surgery researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He presented his findings Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference.

Unfortunately for many patients, the findings won't make much of a difference. About 2,700 Americans are waiting for a heart, and only 2,200 heart transplants are done each year - some of them second operations for people whose first transplant failed, according to UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the nation's transplant system.

The average wait for a heart is 108 days for women and 119 for men. Three-fourths of heart transplants are done in men, so by necessity, many must receive organs from the opposite sex.

Reminds me of a joke from the television series MASH. A artery was being transplanted for a graft from a British soldier to an American soldier. Some British officer said. "I hope he doesn't feel a sudden urge to drive on the left." Do Male heart transplant patients suddenly turn gay or wish to go shopping at JC Penney? Cue the sarcastic laughter.