Nerve damage or diabetic neuropathy is one of the most serious side effects of type 2 diabetes, damaging everything from your hands and feet, brain, heart, and more. There are four significant types of diabetic neuropathy, including autonomic neuropathy, which can cause sexual dysfunction. If you're experiencing poor sexual satisfaction with diabetes, autonomic neuropathy is likely to blame. Try these tips to reclaim your love live.

Why Nerve Damage Causes Sexual Dysfunction

Poor glucose control causes diabetic neuropathy, which affects the nerves of the sexual organs.
Explains Gerald Bernstein, MD, director of the Diabetes Management Program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City: “Uncontrolled diabetes can cause damage in blood vessels and nerves, which affects sexual health. Human sexuality is extremely complex, and when you add in high blood sugars, this becomes a problem. Poor blood sugar control has a big impact on the person's sex life.”
For women who experience this nerve damage, the vagina may not be able to produce enough lubrication to allow for easy intercourse and create a cascading number of problems. Sexual problems in women include decreased vaginal lubrication, painful intercourse, and decreased libido or desire, Bernstein explains. A recent study found that women who take insulin injections to treat diabetes are twice as likely to report dissatisfaction and difficulty achieving orgasm as women without the condition. Women who do not treat their diabetes with insulin are still 40 percent less satisfied with their sex lives than women without the condition, researchers reported in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
For men, this may mean that not enough blood flows to the penis to maintain an erection, Bernstein explains. Called erectile dysfunction (ED), this condition is more prevalent in men with diabetes than the general public, and may occur at an earlier-than-average age, too.

Type 2 Diabetes and Sexuality: Finding Solutions

 Individuals who experience sexual dysfunction should speak to their health care provider to discuss treatment options, Bernstein advises. Although sexuality might be difficult to talk about, it’s an important part of a full and healthy life, and sexual problems that result from diabetes can often be helped.
If you are a woman with type 2 diabetes and you are having diabetes-related sexual problems, you can first try over-the-counter lubricants to help overcome vaginal dryness. Choose a water-based lubricant, one that is meant for sexual activity and that won’t erode condoms or a diaphragm. Other forms of artificial lubrication that may be helpful include vaginal suppositories.
If you are a man with erectile dysfunction, there are many options to help you enjoy an active sex life again, including one of the popular ED prescription medications, vacuum pumps to draw blood into the penis, or penile implants.

Type 2 Diabetes and Sexuality: Prevention Strategies

Since some of the problems associated with sexuality and diabetes are related to uncontrolled diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes may avoid developing such complications by keeping their blood glucose as even as possible. “Controlling diabetes through diet, exercise, and medications can help prevent sexual dysfunction,” Bernstein says.
The best way to control diabetes is to:
  • Follow the diet recommended by your doctor, diabetes educator or dietitian
  • Take medications as directed
  • Exercise regularly
  • Make sure your blood glucose levels are tightly controlled
Communication is the first step to understanding sexual changes caused by diabetes. If you’re having, or want to avoid, sexual problems because of your type 2 diabetes, talk to your doctor or diabetes educator — and remember that they help patients with these issues every day.