Sexual impotency and diabetes: letter from a distraught patient 

Sexual impotency is a problem that faces every day doctor Bartholomew Lloret, urologist. But, what happens if to the problem of erectile dysfunction, you add a diabetes one?

Often, men with sexual impotency attend his office, concerned about their love life and the trauma about the inability to maintain satisfactory sexual relations with their couples.

Doctor Lloret met recently with the case of a 39 years old patient with a diabetes of type 1 (during over 22 years), and erectile dysfunction problems for some months.

“My name is Paul, I am married and I have a son. Six years ago, I started having erection problems; I went to the doctor and he prescribed me pills. They initially worked well. I could maintain relationships once or twice a week but, gradually, they lost their effect.

I went to visit my specialist and when I explained him my problem, he told me he had no other medicines for me. He only suggested me the possibility of injecting myself a medicine into the penis or fitting me a penile prosthesis.

I am very young and this solution does not attract me. I would like to know what can I do to try to solve my problem. ”

Sexual impotency: Tips

In response to the letter, doctor Lloret developed the following list of tips for improvement in the patient:

• Glucose. Controlling blood sugar levels is of paramount importance. As you know, a high level of blood sugar causes progressive damage to the arteries and nerves which, in this case, are charged with regulating the inflow of blood to the penis (corpora cavernosa) and, as you can guess, it will be responsible for the defective of the erection. Today, we know that these structures can be regenerated. It is essential to follow the advice of your endocrinologist and keep your blood sugar levels within normal limits. In the short term, however, you cannot expect great results. But if you are constant, you will finally appreciate it after some time.
• Weight. In a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, it is shown that weight loss improves both the desire and the ability to maintain a satisfactory relationship.
• Inflammation. Try to prevent inflammations. Inflammation is a defence reaction of our body. We are accustomed to think that inflammation is localized in the body part that hurts, but it is not that way. Our immune system mobilises in such a way that it can affect all the blood vessels; this is why you should remove any inflammatory focus.
• Rehabilitation. Start a specific rehabilitation treatment to improve erection.

Similarly we can rehabilitate any muscle in our body, such as the muscles of our legs or arms, we can rehabilitate the muscles of the penis.

Penile muscles need an optimal oxygenation for their cells and muscle fibres remain elastic; otherwise, fibrosis or loss of muscle tissue can take place, and this will be hardly solvable.

More and more studies insist on early rehabilitation, when the first symptoms of erectile dysfunction start.

Neuro-muscular rehabilitation: what is it?

The aim of the neuro-muscular rehabilitation is to improve the inflow of blood into the penis in order to oxygenate it. This ensures that your muscle fibres become relaxed and the penis erected. Treatment depends on the cause that causes dysfunction, so a diagnostic evaluation is needed.

With the diagnosis made, we can start the most appropriate treatment.

There are many treatment options, all of them outpatient and not at all bothersome:

• Shock waves

• Neurostimulation
• Vasoactive drugs
• Surgery
• Vacuum Mechanism

To finish up the article, we echo the words of doctor Lloret: 

“Dear Paul, there are many options to improve the quality of erection without having to be submitted to a really aggressive surgery. Follow these tips and you will notice a gradual improvement.”