Sexual Dissatisfaction Common Among Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Even with the wide array of discomforting symptoms of type 2 diabetes, a recent research carried out has shown that there is a significant amount of patients with type 2 diabetes who have openly and discretely expressed dissatisfaction in their sexual performance.

Sexual dissatisfaction is widely defined as the inability of a person to fully enjoy sexual activity. In more specific terms, sexual dissatisfaction arises as a result of people’s inability to experience a full sexual response cycle. The symptoms can manifest in a number of ways but not limited to erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculations, inability to ejaculate even under high sexual arousal, inability to experience lubrication, orgasms or the experience of pain during sex. The condition rarely brings any sort of physical health challenge, but poses a negative impact on the psychology of the person, leaving feelings of anxiety, fear, depression and debilitating thoughts of incompleteness, inadequacy or inferiority.

People with the condition are currently being encouraged to express themselves after the report recorded that a third of the total number of people with type 2 diabetes in the study experienced some sort of sexual dissatisfaction. The Dutch survey featured 700 participants within the age range of 40-75 years and revealed that no fewer than 36.6 percent of the participants were sexually dissatisfied. The survey also showed that the issue was more prevalent in the male counterparts who accounted for 41.1 percent of the results while females were less sexually dissatisfied with 27.8 percent.

On closer evaluation of these results, it can be inferred that erectile dysfunction is the major challenge in men with type 2 diabetes that are sexually dissatisfied. Erectile dysfunction accounted for 71.6 percent of the reasons indicated by her male patients while loss of libido accounted for 26.1 percent. 20.9 percent of the participants also complained about delayed evaculation or inability to evaculate. In the case of their female counterparts, more than half (52.8 percent) complained of a lack of sexual urges and desires. Some 27.8 percent reported sexual intercourse to be painful while 45.8 percent were shown by the study to be suffering from lubrication problems.

The study was carried out by Dr. Anne Bijilsma-Rutte, a senior practitioner at the VU University medical center in Amsterdam in the department of general practitioners and elderly medicine, emphasized that the significant amount of type 2 diabetes symptoms sufferers who experience sexual dissatisfaction of some sort calls for the need to direct attention and resources towards this area in diabetes care. The doctor also noted that the current attention that these issues receive was very insufficient as over 66 percent of the men with sexual dissatisfaction reported to have never been queried about the issue by their general medical health care providers and practitioners. 

The research team further recommended a screening for sexual problems in patients with type 2 diabetes using the brief sexual symptoms check list (BSSC), as a panacea to reduce and eradicate sexual dissatisfaction symptoms in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes. On the part of the researcher's screening for sexual dissatisfaction and the initiation of conversations relating to sexual problems in patients with type 2 diabetes is the first step to be taken to correct the issue and achieve sexual satisfaction in people with type 2 diabetes.

The issue of sexual dissatisfaction in female counterparts is also highlighted by another expert finding that concludes that women who receive insulin treatments are at significantly higher tendencies to have problems with lubrication and experiencing organs during sex. The research was conducted by senior author, J. Huang Allison and lead author Copeland Kelli, both of whom are experts at the University of California San Francisco Women’s health clinical research center, and included no fewer than 2270 women between the ages 40 and 80. The patient demographic consisted of women who were insulin-treated, non-insulin treated women with and without diabetes.

The survey required each participant to answer questions with regards to sexual satisfaction, lubrication, rate of sexual activity, self-reported sexual desires, arousal, pain or orgasms during sex. In the statistics, 486 participants had diabetes with 139 of them on some forms of insulin treatment. The results showed that women who experienced lower sexual satisfaction were twice as high in insulin-treated women and forty percent more than those with non-insulin treated diabetes compared to their non-diabetic counterparts.

Patients who experience sexual dissatisfaction are encouraged to speak to their medical practitioners more often about the symptoms and receive further medical attention to correct sexual challenges. Other methods that can heighten stimulation and help control premature ejaculations can also be introduced for members of either sex with type 2 diabetes and sexual dissatisfaction.

Some facts about diabetes

Diabetes is one of the most common and prevalent health challenges affecting a significant number of people across the globe.

The symptoms of type 2 diabetes are widespread and can be quite debilitating with the severe health-degrading issues that accompany the ailment. Generally, type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and has no cure as at now. The condition chiefly affects adults but is seen in children with cases of childhood obesity. Type 2 diabetes may be present in many without realization for years to come but the dominant symptoms are usually easily diagnosed once it becomes apparent. The following are symptoms of type 2 diabetes:

• Weight loss: People suffering from type 2 diabetes usually experience significant weight loss irrespective of feeding on regular basis. This is due to the inability of the body to metabolize the consumed glucose, thereby turning to the burning of fat cells to release energy. The majority of the consumed glucose is released in the urine.
• Increased thirst and higher rate of urination: The presence of excess sugar levels that have built up around the cells can cause concentration and hypertonic conditions that cause the cells to lose fluid, leaving patients thirsty and thus, initiating urination at rates higher than usual.
• Fatigue: Patients with type 2 diabetes have cells that are depleted and devoid of sugar (glucose) for energy and metabolism, and as such, patients will tend to feel tired, fatigued and drained more often especially when engaged in physical activity.
• Slow healing and higher tendencies to encounter infections: Type 2 diabetes affects the body cell’s ability to heal and cloth wounds and leaves patient prone to infections.
• Blurred vision: The presence of extremely high sugar in the blood may lead to fluid being pulled from the eyes which may affec the ability of patients to focus on vision.

Other symptoms may be apparent as frequent hunger and appearance of darkened skin. At critical levels, patients with type 2 diabetes may require amputations to prevent spread of infections in severe wounds and injuries that fail to heal on time.