Men, please take note. If you are suffering from diabetes, you may be at a higher risk of erectile dysfunction (ED), a new study suggests.
According to the doctors, from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, ED, or the condition due to which there is incompetence to accomplish and sustain erection needed to have satisfactory sexual intercourse, in men, is a commonly seen complication in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Co-author Atul Kakar, Vice-Chairperson, Department of Medicine, said:
ED has high prevalence in diabetics and occurs in early ages of diabetic population as compared to non-diabetics.
For the study, published in the journal Current Medicine Research and Practice, the doctors examined 225 diabetic males between he age of 18-65 years with Type 2 diabetes and 50 non-diabetic males within the same age group. They assessed the severity of ED among male diabetics, based on Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) questionnaire.
The SHIM questionnaire uses five sexual function components which include erection, orgasm, desire for sex, intercourse satisfaction and overall satisfaction.
They found that 173 diabetic males (78.7 percent) had some degree of ED whereas prevalence of ED in non-diabetic control group of 50 health individuals was found to be 46 percent.
One of the interesting findings of our study was that longer the duration of diabetes more was the risk of erectile dysfunction, the researchers said.
The researchers also found that among patients with diabetes duration less than 5 years, 43.6 percent had ED with only 3.6 percent having severe ED.
Those with duration between 6-10 years, 83 percent had ED with 10.9 percent having severe ED. In patients with diabetes duration more than 10 years, 78.6 per cent has ED with 16.4 per cent having severe ED.
Many safe treatment options are available today for treatment of patients with erectile dysfunction. Thus patients need to report such symptoms early for effective management.Atul Kakar, Vice-Chairperson, Department of Medicine
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