How does diabetes affect your sex life?

Hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the major causes for sexual problems especially impotence or erectile dysfunction within men. Although the high incidence of hypertension is often attributed to stress, there are primary metabolic disorders at play such as obesity or adrenal gland problems. In fact, stress may be due to the adrenal glands producing too much cortisol due to metabolic disorders. Corrective medications and therapies administered according to the specific needs can correct erectile dysfunction in most patients.

Hypothyroidism or an underactive thyroid gland is one of the most common causes for low sexual desire in women. This is especially a problem as it may go undiagnosed for years. Not only is it detrimental to sexual wellness but an underactive thyroid gland can lead to weight gain and also cause other hormonal problems such as interfering with the menstrual cycle.

While being overweight causes metabolic disorders within your body such as making you prone to diabetes or hypertension, most overweight people think they can't perform in bed only due to a mental block. Overweight or marginally obese people with otherwise normal sexual functions simply think they are not good enough and thus may suffer from sexual inadequacy which consequently impacts their performance adversely. Although obesity is a metabolic disorder in many cases, its mental impact is majorly what causes harm to sexual well-being.

In most cases, especially in postmenopausal women, the decrease in sexual activity has often been connected to the drop in sex hormones such as estrogen. The same has been seen for men due to the drop in testosterone. However, both these hormones drop due to the metabolism in the body slowing down and not the other way around. Older people who maintain a healthy lifestyle or had lesser metabolism problems only had a marginal drop compared to others.