Older diabetics are just as sexually active as the general public, but the disease does tend to impair sexual drive and pleasure, new research shows.
The study, focused on nearly 2,000 people aged 57 to 85, finds nearly 70% of men with sexual partners and 62% of partnered women engaged in sex two to three times a month, on par with diabetes-free people.
The diabetic men, however, were more prone to experience erectile dysfunction, lose interest in sex or climax too quickly, while both men and women with diabetes more often failed to achieve climax.
Barriers to sexual activity seem tougher for female diabetics. Women with diabetes were far less likely than the non-diabetics to have sexual partners or to discuss sexual problems with a doctor.
The findings — derived from in-home interviews, self-administered questionnaires and medication audits — reveal diabetics need not diminish sexual activity but many diabetics are struggling with sexual problems, said lead study author Stacy Lindau, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of medicine at the University of Chicago, in a press release announcing the results.
“Patients and doctors need to know that most middle age and older adults with partners are still sexually active despite their diabetes,” Lindau said. “However, many people with diabetes have sexual problems that are not being addressed.”
The study appears in next month’s issue of Diabetes Care.
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