Diabetes Notes

Love and the Beedies

by Rob Rummel-Hudson on February 8th, 2007

When I saw that this month’s Science and Health theme day topic was “love”, I thought “Uh oh, there’s probably only one topic that will really lend itself to diabetes and love, and that’s the one that nobody except my television seem to want to talk about.

But okay, let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about sex and diabetes.

If you’re living in the United States, I can’t imagine you haven’t seen the television commercials for diabetes products (unless you’re Amish or the Unabomber, and in either of those cases, I suspect you don’t do a lot of web surfing), and if you spend even a little bit of time in front of the tube, you’ve learned two things about diabetes. Wilford Brimley’s got the “diabetus”, and, well, if you’re a guy, you might want to invest in a happy little pill that will make, you know, things happen the way they once did in your youth. Don’t make me spell it out.

The reality for type 2 diabetics is that most of the complications that impede a healthy sex life come not just from the disease, but also as a result of being overweight. It sounds like a broken record, but the fact remains that the very best thing you can do for yourself if you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is to lose weight. It will have a positive effect on everything else, from your blood sugar to pain in your feet to, well, performance issues.

Diabetes can bring about conditions that lead directly or indirectly to sexual problems. Vascular disease can cause a reduction in arousal, cardiac disease can make breathing difficult, and urinary incontinence can be embarrassing. Furthermore, some medications associated with diabetes and its accompanying conditions (high blood pressure and heart disease, for example), can produce side effects that adversely affect libido.

The problems that come about as a result of diabetes and weight aren’t just in men, either. Physical issues such as nerve damage and just the physical difficulties of having sec when you’re obese are one issue, but probably the more prevalent ones are mental and emotional. And those difficulties are typically worse for women.

A recent report presented at the Obesity Society in Vancouver, British Columbia, showed that emotional and psychological barriers can get in the way of good sex. (They needed a study to figure that out?) And their primary recommendation for improving feelings of sexual attractiveness? You guessed it. Weight loss. Embarrassment seems to be the biggest bugbear.

Dieters in the study logged their feelings evaluating six areas of sexual quality of life: feeling sexually unattractive, lack of sexual desire, reluctance to be seen undressed, difficulty with sexual performance, avoidance of sexual encounters and lack of enjoyment of sexual activity. Women were found to be twice as likely to report having difficulty being seen naked and five times more likely not to enjoy sexual activity.

The other primary issue for men is, yes, erectile dysfunction. You can debate the priorities of the pharmaceutical industry, and probably rightfully so (“We were thinking of working on an effective AIDS vaccine, but our stockholders say the real money’s in boners…”), but the reality is that the miracle drugs that have been developed prove to be effective in a great many patients. Reluctance to report the issue, however, keeps many men from being treated.

The good news is that following a healthy weight-loss plan for two years, along with counseling, exercise and support, obese dieters who lost about 13 percent of their body weight felt more sexually desirable, and had more desire for sex. The Vancouver study concluded that even a 10 percent weight loss can improve a subject’s sex life.

I can say personally that losing about 30 pounds has made a huge difference in my life, and I wish I’d done so BEFORE having diabetes light a fire under my (then big) ass. Love and sex aren’t necessarily the same thing, I realize, but losing the weight and becoming healthier can go a long way towards making you feel sexier.

The love part? That you’ve got to figure out for yourself. Might I suggest a breath mint? Also, share the remote now and then.

(via eDiets)

Share This

Related Stories

Best of 2006, sort of
Five Tips for Dodging the Beedies
A Great Contest!
Go me.
Share Some Of Your Diabetic Love…

POSTED IN: Inspiration, Research