Systematic review reveals multiple sexually antagonistic polymorphisms affecting human disease and complex traits

An evolutionary model for sex differences in disease risk posits that
alleles conferring higher risk in one sex may be protective in the other.
These sexually antagonistic (SA) alleles are predicted to be maintained at
frequencies higher than expected under purifying selection against
unconditionally deleterious alleles, but there are apparently no examples
in humans. Discipline-specific terminology, rather than a genuine lack of
such alleles, could explain this disparity. We undertook a two-stage
review of evidence for SA polymorphisms in humans using search terms from
(i) evolutionary biology and (ii) biomedicine. While the first stage
returned no eligible studies, the second revealed 51 genes with
sex-opposite effects, 22 increased disease risk or severity in one sex but
protected the other. Those with net positive effects occurred at higher
frequencies. None were referred to as SA. Our review reveals significant
communication barriers to fields as a result of discipline-specific
terminology.