Abstract
BackgroundDiabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes short and long-term complications. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of sexual dysfunctions (SD) among diabetic patients in Iran and to examine whether glycemic control has a role in SD.MethodsA consecutive sample of diabetic women and men who were registered in the Isfahan Endocrine and Metabolism Center, Iran were studied. Sexual dysfunction was evaluated using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) in women and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) in men. In addition the level of glycosylated hemoglobin was assessed to classify the diabetes status in patients.ResultsIn all 200 patients (100 male and 100 female) were entered into the study. The mean age of patients was 48.6 (SD = 7.3) years and most had type 2 diabetes (91.0%). The results showed that sexual dysfunctions were widespread in both gender and 165 (82.5%) patients reported that experienced at least one sexual dysfunction. There were significant associations between sexual dysfunctions and gender and type of diabetes (P = 0.04). Women and patients with type 1 diabetes had higher rates of SD. No major differences were found between SD and age, diabetes status, duration of diabetes and hypertension. In addition, glycemic control did not show a significant association with SD in both genders.ConclusionThe findings of this study showed that SD prevalence was high in diabetic patients of both genders and the glycemic control did not correlate with the frequency of SD in the study population. It is recommended that SD should be addressed more precisely in health care practice in Iran.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes short and long-term complications
The results showed that there was a significant association between presence of sexual dysfunctions (SD) and gender (P = 0.04) where women were more affected by SD compared to men (88 versus 77%)
A study by Doruk demonstrated that female sexual dysfunctions involved women with diabetes in all SD items and the rate of involvement were higher among type 1 diabetic cases [7]
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes short and long-term complications. Hyperglycemia in diabetic patients can cause short and long term complications. Autonomic nervous system imperfections accounts for a vast range of these disorders that would engage all body systems including cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urinary, adrenalin glands and reproductive system [2]. Their prevalence is associated with age, weight, disease duration, GH level, cholesterol level, hypertension and smoking. In addition the stigma associated with a chronic disease such as diabetes might have effect on patients' social life and perhaps cause social isolation. It is well recognized that social isolation is an important risk factor for depression [4]
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