Type 2 Diabetes and Sexual Dysfunction!
Sexual problems are common and are often associated with type 2 diabetes. But please be aware these problems affect other people too, especially as people get older.
Type 2 diabetes is rather a dramatic condition, it creeps up on you whilst you are not looking. It brings along with it symptoms such as:
memory loss
feeling hungry even after eating
affects the quality of your sleep at night
interferes with concentration levels at work
it can increase urination during the day or night
Many changes were taking place in your body, often for ten years before the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was made. The drama of diabetes becomes obvious when complications start to appear.
Sexual dysfunction and infertility are amongst the cruel complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Within ten years of diagnosis, many men notice changes in their sexual performance:
by age 60 more than half of all men with diabetes experience erectile dysfunction
9 percent of men in their twenties experience impotency also
The cause is excess blood sugar … it damages the nerves and blood vessels of the penis. When the nerves are damaged sensory information from the nerves cannot be transported and an erection is not triggered. So poor circulation means the blood flow is inadequate to cause and sustain an erection
Good blood sugar control can prevent erectile dysfunction and, at an early stage, can reverse symptoms. The results of a study published in the International Journal of Impotency Research on September 17, 2009, showed that the higher the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was on the one hundred men who took place in this study, the greater the degree of their erectile dysfunction.
The hemoglobin A1c level is the name for the test used to measure your average glucose control over a longer period of time. It is important to know the HbA1c reflects an average of your blood sugar levels, the higher your HbA1c the more uncontrolled your blood sugars. Normal levels should be less than 5.9.
Health care providers have difficulty telling male patients about this particular danger of poorly controlled diabetes. Once these problems develop, medications such as Viagra, can help men to resume sexual functions. If damage progresses and medications don’t work anymore, penile implants and vacuum devices can get the penis erect.
Diabetes can also interfere with adolescent girls and young women … high blood sugar levels can cause yeast infections and vaginal inflammation. These too rob women of sexual enjoyment. If diabetes complications involve the nerves and circulation to the womans’ genital tract, she may be unable to experience the normal pleasure associated with sex. But these problems are less likely to occur when blood sugar levels are controlled.