Diabetes or Other Metabolic Disease Can Affect Your Sexual Wellness

Diabetes is probably the largest silent killer on the planet at this point. It affects the general health as well as sexual health. Diabetes primarily causes sexual problems in men and women as high levels of blood glucose damages the blood vessels and thus hinder the normal flow of blood. This may cause erectile dysfunction among men and vaginal dryness among women.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the major causes for sexual problems especially impotence or erectile dysfunction in 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 problem 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.

In most cases, especially in postmenopausal women, the decrease in sexual activity has often been linked to the drop in sex hormones such as estrogen. The same has been observed for men due to the drop in testosterone levels. However, both these hormones drop due to the slow body metabolism. Older people who maintain a healthy lifestyle or had lesser metabolism problems only had a marginal drop as compared to others.