BACKGROUND: Behçet's disease is a multisystem disease featuring mucocutaneous, 
ocular, articular, vascular, intestinal, urogenital, and neurologic involvement 
and occurs with a high prevalence in the Mediterranean including Turkey. Higher 
incidence of severe clinical course and systemic involvement is observed in male 
patients.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of sex on the clinical course of Behçet' s 
disease.
METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical findings of 2313 Behçet 
patients followed up at the multidisciplinary Behçet's Disease Center at Ankara 
University.
RESULTS: The male/female patient ratio was 1.03. Oral aphthae was seen in all 
patients. In male Behçet patients, the prevalence of mucocutaneous lesions and 
systemic manifestations was as follows: 85.6% genital aphthae, 45.5% erythema 
nodosum, 59.5% papulopustular lesions, 17.5% thrombophlebitis, 38.1% ocular 
involvement, 11.3% articular involvement, 11.7% vascular involvement, 3.3% 
neurologic involvement, 1.4% gastrointestinal involvement, and 1.8% pulmonary 
involvement. In female Behçet patients, the prevalence of manifestations were as 
follows: 91% genital aphthae, 49.8% erythema nodosum, 48.3% papulopustular 
lesions, 3.5% thrombophlebitis, 19.8% ocular involvement, 11.8% articular 
involvement, 2.1% vascular involvement, 1.3% neurologic involvement, 1.4% 
gastrointestinal involvement, and 0.03% pulmonary involvement.
CONCLUSIONS: Only genital aphthae and erythema nodosum were more frequent in 
females. On the other hand papulopustular eruptions, thrombophlebitis, ocular, 
neurologic, pulmonary and vascular involvement were more frequent in males. 
While female patients had the best prognosis, male patients had a worse overall 
prognosis than females.