Diabetes and Sex for Women
Diabetes and Sex for Women
Sex is good for diabetes. It's good for your heart and blood flow, helps you sleep, and boosts your mood.
If you have diabetes and have had painful sex or trouble getting aroused, though, sex may not seem too sexy. About 35% of women with diabetes seem to have sexual issues. That doesn't mean you have to live with them. There's help to get your sex life going again.
Diabetes Care: Managing Your Time When You Have Diabetes
Sometimes, living with diabetes can seem like a full-time job -- trying to keep up with everything you need to do for proper diabetes care. "Diabetes is a very time-consuming disease to manage well," says Karmeen Kulkarni, MS, RD, CDE, and former president of health care and education for the American Diabetes Association. "The medication, the food, the physical activity -- you add life in general to that whole picture and it ends up being quite challenging."
Read the Diabetes Care: Managing Your Time When You Have Diabetes article > >
"Some women's issues may be more complex to treat than those of men, but most can be treated," says Janis Roszler, a diabetes educator, marriage therapist, and author of Sex and Diabetes: For Him and For Her. "There's no reason for any woman with diabetes to deny herself the opportunity to have a fulfilling and pleasurable sex life."
The causes of sexual issues for women with diabetes are less clear than those in men with diabetes. But nerve damage, slowed blood flow to vaginal and genital tissues, and mood and hormone changes may play a part.
Common sex-stallers include:
If you have diabetes and have had painful sex or trouble getting aroused, though, sex may not seem too sexy. About 35% of women with diabetes seem to have sexual issues. That doesn't mean you have to live with them. There's help to get your sex life going again.
Recommended Related to Diabetes
Diabetes Care: Managing Your Time When You Have Diabetes
Sometimes, living with diabetes can seem like a full-time job -- trying to keep up with everything you need to do for proper diabetes care. "Diabetes is a very time-consuming disease to manage well," says Karmeen Kulkarni, MS, RD, CDE, and former president of health care and education for the American Diabetes Association. "The medication, the food, the physical activity -- you add life in general to that whole picture and it ends up being quite challenging."
Read the Diabetes Care: Managing Your Time When You Have Diabetes article > >
"Some women's issues may be more complex to treat than those of men, but most can be treated," says Janis Roszler, a diabetes educator, marriage therapist, and author of Sex and Diabetes: For Him and For Her. "There's no reason for any woman with diabetes to deny herself the opportunity to have a fulfilling and pleasurable sex life."
Sexual Challenges for Women
The causes of sexual issues for women with diabetes are less clear than those in men with diabetes. But nerve damage, slowed blood flow to vaginal and genital tissues, and mood and hormone changes may play a part.
Common sex-stallers include:
- Vaginal dryness. This is the biggest sexual complaint in women with diabetes. Vaginal dryness is, this twice as likely if you have diabetes. If you are in menopause or postmenopause, less estrogen may be the cause. If you aren't, damage to the nerves that lubricate your vagina may be. Vaginal dryness can become a painful cycle. If sex hurts because of it, you may tense up during sex, causing more pain, or avoid sex altogether.
- Vaginal infections. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) may make sex painful. Yeast infections can also cause pain during sex, as well as vaginal dryness. "If you have poorly controlled diabetes, you're more likely to have yeast and other vaginal infections," says David G. Merrero, PhD, president of Health Care and Education at the American Diabetes Association.
- Sex drive and orgasm issues. Maybe you find it hard to get in the mood. Or you get in the mood but don't climax. Trouble with orgasms is a concern for many women with diabetes. A 2012 study found that women who took insulin for diabetes were 80% more likely to have trouble reaching an orgasm than women who don't have diabetes. The exact reasons for low libido and orgasm troubles are not clear.
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