Sexual dysfunction in diabetic patients — an important and overlooked complication

Introduction. Diabetes affects over 415 million of the world population. In Poland, the number of diabetics reaches 3 million people with more than one million of patients unaware about their disease. A large number of people with diabetes struggle with numerous complications including area of sexual dysfunction, resulting from improperly controlled blood glucose. Material and methods. The study used a proprietary three-part questionnaire for the evaluation of sexual satisfaction in patients with diabetes. Participation in the study included 110 patients with diabetes. The average age of the respondents was 42.2 (SD = 15.82). Results. The loss or decrease of interest in sex life were the most frequently reported by patients with diabetes problems in the field of sex life. More than 40% of patients are dissatisfied with their sex lives. Half of the patients have the sex life contrary to their expectations. The respondents using insulin injections had significantly lower level of sexual satisfaction than patients using insulin pumps. Conclusions. Satisfaction with sex life is a key component of the patient’s wellbeing. People with diabetes rarely evaluate their lives as satisfactory. The results of the study open the working area for professionals, which will result in improving the quality of sex life of patients with diabetes. We hope that the results of our research will contribute to improving patients quality of life by encouraging physicians to pay closer attention to the realm of sex as important source of patient satisfaction.