Research suggests that women with type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes have decreased sexual function and increased sexual distress during the second half of the menstrual cycle after ovulation and before menstruation (also known as the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle).

A group of Italian researchers lead by Dr. Andrea Salonia, of University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, evaluated the sexual function and endocrine profile in 50 fertile women with type 1 diabetes, noting the follicular (roughly the first two weeks of the menstrual cycle) and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle, and compared the findings with those of 47 controls.

Compared with the controls, women with diabetes had decreased sexual function and increased sexual distress during the luteal, but not the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.

During the luteal phase, patients had higher total testosterone levels and lower estrogen and progesterone levels compared with the controls.

“Decreased sexual function occurs independently of mood deflections and does not seem to be influenced by glycemic (sugar) control,” Salonia and colleagues write.

The variability of sexual function with different phases of the menstrual cycle may have implications on the clinical assessment in diabetics, they conclude.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2005;29:312-316.