Yes, autoimmune diseases are more prevalent in women than men. In fact, the statistics can be as high as 90% of autoimmune diseases occur in women. There are many factors that contribute to this high prevalence in women.
The double XX hormone in women contributes to the high prevalence as well. The X chromosome is known to have many genes related to the immune system. This also explains why men are more prone to more infectious diseases than women.
This double X chromosome increases the tendency of developing autoimmunity. This explains the hypothesis of increase chances of men with Klinefelter's syndrome (47, XXY) developing SLE.
The sex hormone is known to play a role. Estrogen plays a significant role in Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE). Estrogen, through the estrogen receptor (ER), can stimulate the expression of a set of interferon (IFN)- inducible genes.
There are some studies that may show that autoimmune diseases are more prevalent in women as compared to men. The main reason for this is the X chromosome. Women have 2 X chromosomes, while men only have one. This can be very helpful for women when they are fighting off infectious diseases, but there are some diseases that are also related to the X chromosome, which means that autoimmune diseases may happen more often.
Those who have autoimmune diseases usually suffer from chronic diseases, which means that they will have the autoimmune disease for the rest of their life. Still, take note that there are some autoimmune diseases that are still more common in men as compared to women.
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