Erectile dysfunction and decreased desire: diabetes is also a “sexual” disease
It was discussed during the 30th National Congress of the Italian Society of Diabetology (SID)
RIMINI – Diabetes is a disease that impacts many areas of life for those affected by it, including intimate and sexual life. Micro and macrovascular complications and metabolic factors correlate with sexual dysfunction in both sexes. These are aspects that people are reluctant to talk about and that worsen their quality of life. This was discussed during the 30th National Congress of the Italian Society of Diabetes (SID), underway in Rimini until October 26.
“People’s sexual health – says the outgoing president of SID, Angelo Avogaro – is often characterized by alterations and dysfunctions that must be welcomed and responded to by the diabetes team”.
“Erectile dysfunction (ED), which in males is recognized as the inability to obtain or maintain an erection for satisfactory sexual intercourse – underlines Antonio C.
Bossi, creator of the symposium on the topic – is recognized as a predictor of severe vascular events, even independently of diabetes. In some circumstances, ED can be caused by testosterone deficiency, or hypogonadism, which is very frequently associated with diabetes. Suffice it to say that many of the risk factors for ED are diabetes, like obesity and metabolic syndrome, are often related to hypogonadism that benefits from testosterone treatment in males, in which it could have metabolically favorable effects”.
Men with diabetes have a higher rate of Erectile Dysfunction related, it is hypothesized, to vascular damage and a decrease in the caliber of the arteries that carry blood to the penis. In cases where diabetes follows obesity, we speak of functional ‘hypogonadism’, reversible with weight loss that can be treated, depending on the case, with testosterone replacement therapy.
ED as an obvious sign of endothelial dysfunction can also be considered a marker or predictor of cardiovascular events. Risk factors for ED such as chronic low-grade inflammation are caused by obesity, which causes inflammation that in turn leads to insulin resistance and decreased testosterone.
The odd couple, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation: these two sexual dysfunctions are interconnected, one can determine the other. In particular, premature ejaculation can initially overshadow erectile difficulties. In a study on people with type 2 diabetes, the prevalence of PE was about 40%.
Female sexual dysfunctions, on the other hand, are conditions that are often associated with each other and are investigated much more rarely. For this reason, health conditions that can predict its onset and drug therapies that can exacerbate its evolution are also little considered.
“Women with diabetes – highlights Maria Ida Maiorino, creator of the symposium – present Sexual Dysfunction that foresee organic and psychological causes with a plethora of manifestations: decreased desire, reduced arousal with less blood flow to the genital area, worsening of arousal, vaginal lubrication, orgasm and general satisfaction. Phenomena that worsen in the presence of obesity that leads to less satisfaction with one’s body image. Long-term diabetes and poor acceptance of this condition has been correlated with worse sexual function”.