You are living with diabetes and, for some time now, something has changed in your intimate life. The erection lasts less well. Vaginal dryness makes intercourse uncomfortable, sometimes painful. Or the desire seems less present. We often put this down to age, fatigue, stress, or even “what’s going on in the head”. However, Dr Gérald Kierzek points out that diabetes can also play a role, without automatically being the only explanation.
His advice is simple: don’t be left alone with this question.
The right reflex, according to Dr. Gérald Kierzek, is to talk to your doctor or diabetologist about it..
Can diabetes really disrupt sexuality?
Yes, it’s possible. As Health Insurance explains,
high sugar levels for a long time can weaken blood vessels and nerves. However, these vessels and nerves participate in sexual functioning.
In men, this damage can hinder the flow of blood necessary for an erection. Result: the erection becomes more difficult to obtain or maintain. In women, diabetes can also be associated with vaginal dryness, with intercourse becoming less comfortable or even painful.
These mechanisms are known, but they should not lead us to conclusions too quickly. Difficulty erection, pain during intercourse or reduced pleasure do not mean, in themselves, that diabetes is necessarily responsible. To deepen this link, True Medical has already devoted a file to the consequences of diabetes on sexuality.
Is a drop in desire enough to incriminate diabetes?
No. This is an important point of the message: diabetes doesn’t explain everything. Stress, daily worries, low morale, depression, certain medications, tobacco, alcohol or even age-related changes can also intervene.
The drop in desire is therefore a signal to listen to, not a diagnosis. It can accompany a physical disorder, fatigue, pain, fear of failure, tension in the relationship or several factors at the same time. This is precisely why it is useful to talk about it in consultation: the healthcare professional will be able to place this symptom in your medical history, your treatment, the balance of your diabetes and your general condition.
In men, erectile dysfunction can be particularly difficult to discuss, even though it is a legitimate medical topic. A True Medical page also discusses erectile dysfunction when diabetes is involved, without this dispensing with a personalized opinion.
How to approach the subject without embarrassment in consultation?
There is no need to detail everything right away. You can start in a very concrete way: since when did relationships become more complicated? Is it a less stable erection, vaginal dryness, pain, reduced desire, lack of pleasure? Simple wording can help approach the subject without dramatizing : “Recently, my sex life has changed. Could this be linked to my diabetes?
The doctor can then look for several avenues.
Diabetes balance is one of the points to reviewbut it should not be assumed that improving blood sugar levels will immediately resolve any sexual difficulty. Depending on the situation, the professional may also question morale, pain, current treatments, life context or direct other appropriate follow-up, particularly gynecological if necessary.
These troubles are neither a fault nor an inevitability to be accepted in silence. Naming them, even in a sentence, already allows us to break out of isolation and open the way to an appropriate medical discussion.