Sexuality is a very diverse topic. It includes an individual’s sexual knowledge, behavior, anatomy, and physiology. It is a basic need of marital and romantic relationships for physical and mental health. Due to its integration, people relate their health with sexual ability. Sexuality is an integral part of the life of a human being which is no doubt affected due to diabetes. A lot of studies have been published regarding preventions for diabetes and relevant complications in especially males.
Diabetes and its Types
Diabetes is a chronic illness in which the body is unable to regulate the glucose level in the blood. The pancreas is an organ that produces insulin and glucagon hormones that regulate the glucose level in the blood. In diabetes either the body is unable to produce insulin or it is unable to use insulin properly to regulate the blood glucose.
High blood glucose level is very dangerous and seriously damages the heart, kidneys, liver, eyes, and nervous system. There are 400 million people in the world who live with diabetes. There are certain preventions for diabetes with which one can save himself from this disease but let’s first discuss its types.
There are the following types of diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes
This is also called insulin-dependent diabetes in which the patient is needed to inject insulin on daily basis to maintain their blood glucose level.
Type 2 Diabetes
The body is unable to use insulin effectively. Most of the time, type 2 diabetes remains subclinical and is diagnosed after serious damage to different organs.
Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT)
This is in between the condition of normal glucose level and diabetes. These patients are at higher risk of heart attacks.
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Most of the time this is a temporary condition in pregnant women but may be prolonged after delivery. In this condition, the glucose level is not at a normal level but lower than diabetic values.
Diabetes and its Complications in Male
Diabetes type 1 is known to cause sexual dysfunction along with other medical conditions in both males and females although very less data is available on women. Several types of research documented that the long duration of diabetes affects sexuality at an early age.
Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes Patients
Erection in men is the combination of hormonal, physiological, and nervous impulses. Men with diabetes have 3.5 times more erectile dysfunction problems than those without diabetes. Â Blood flow is one of the main factors in an erection. Diabetes has a strong impact on body organs, the nervous system, and psychological impact. Even men with the strong sexual desire cannot achieve enough erection due to low nervous stimulation and low blood supply.
In females, diabetes resulted in less sexual desire and lubrication. The scientist suggested the reason as the only psychological impact of diabetes called psychogenic erectile dysfunction.
Ejaculatory Dysfunction
Diabetes patients may also suffer from ejaculation dysfunction and loss of sexual desire other than erectile dysfunction. Ejaculation is the release of sperm with a climax. Successful ejaculation resulted in 3 neurological events:
- Release of semen
- Closure of bladder neck
- Pelvic floor muscles contraction
In diabetes patients, the neck of the bladder does not close on time due to a disturbance in nerve endings. Partially or sometimes complete semen is deposited into the bladder resulting in no release of semen at all through the penis. This condition has a strong psychological impact on men and their fertility.
Sexual Dysfunction in Females
Research has low knowledge of sexual dysfunction in females due to diabetes as compared to males. Females may experience the following sexual problems due to diabetes:
- Low sexual desire
- Difficulty in female genital arousal
- The unwanted feeling of arousal
- Orgasm disorders
How to Treat Sexuality in Diabetes?
Most patients hesitate to discuss their matters with doctors. If you want to treat your medical condition, you have to contact your doctor and tell him your detail. There are certain treatment options available. We will discuss them one by one.
Phosphodiesterase type 5 Inhibitors (PDE5I)
The first medicine of this class approved by the FDA was Sildenafil (Viagra). Others are vaerdenafil (Levitra), tadalafil (Cialis) and avanafil (Stendra).
Vasodilators
Direct application of vasodilators on penile tissue is the treatment used for decades. For examples papaverine, phentolamine and prostaglandins.
Penile Prosthetics
Some flaps, grafts, or most commonly hollow silicone tube is inserted through surgery to treat erectile dysfunction. This procedure has a maximum satisfaction rate among all other available treatment options.
Preventions for Diabetes
Research proved that managing your lifestyle with diabetes will help you to improve your overall health as well as sexual health. you can also prevent diabetes with these interventions in your lifestyle.
- Routinely monitor your glucose level
- Do exercise regularly
- Reduce you weight
- Eat plant products
Specifically, reduction in weight resulted in improvement in erectile dysfunction.
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