Since glucose is the major energy source for your nerves, blood vessels and muscles, maintaining healthy blood sugar levels in the body is extremely essential to help the body maintain healthy biological functions.
The longer the time you’ve had diabetes, lesser is the control which you have over your blood glucose levels and hence, higher is the risk of dysfunctions and complications. Sexual dysfunction is primarily a complication which results from damage to the body’s blood vessels and nerves which are responsible for supplying blood to the sexual organs of the body.
Modifications and changes in your lifestyle may be necessary to improve your overall sexual health. These changes would include, having a healthy diet and regular exercise routine, blood pressure as well as cholesterol control, avoiding cigarette smoking, bringing down your alcohol consumption to a bare minimum and very importantly, stress management.
Sexual dysfunction basically refers to any sort of interference with one’s sexual performance. Sexual performance can be affected due to diabetes in both men as well as women. Amongst men, it is known to cause Erectile Dysfunction (ED), abnormalities during ejaculation and hypogonadism (low levels of testosterone production). On the other hand, in women, it can lead to vaginal dryness, pain, lack of desire and other diseases like yeast infection.
Erectile Dysfunction is the inability to obtain or sustain an erection sufficient enough in order to achieve vaginal penetration. Erectile dysfunction can be understood by understanding the basic process of achieving an erection. The human brain is stimulated due to sensory and physical(touch) perceptions and when this happens, the brain tends to directs the muscles in the penis to relax which in turn increases the blood flow into the penis, thereby making the penis erect. The pressure due to the inflow of blood helps to expand the penis. A person’s ability to maintain this erection completely depends upon the capacity of his penile muscles to be able to hold the blood pressure over a certain period of time. After intercourse is completed, the vascular channels which have been temporarily closed during erection are slowly opened up and the blood slowly starts to flow out, thus causing the penis to return back to its flaccid state slowly.
Now you can certainly imagine how damage to the blood vessels or the nerves because of diabetes can reduce the amount of blood hat flows into the penis with resultant Erectile Dysfunction. Moreover, in case one is diagnosed with hypogonadism, it could most certainly result in the reduction of sexual desire.
Your doctor (urologist, gynaecologist and internist) will surely be able to help you diagnose the type of sexual dysfunction that you can be suffering from by examining your history, performing lab tests and also a physical exam. Laboratory tests will have tests like testosterone levels, PSA, ultrasounds, nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) and nerve sensory tests for men. On the other hand, the recommended tests for women would include pelvic exam, laparoscopy, culture of vaginal discharge and hormone levels test.
0 comments