90% of women with diabetes say they have never talked to a health professional about the impact of this disease on their sexuality. A striking fact if one takes into account the importance of diabetes in menstruation, pregnancy or menopause.
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease that is very present today. But despite this, the number of women with diabetes who have received information about how their sexuality affects this disease is very small. A topic we address on International Women’s Day.
Whether it’s about him impact of diabetes itself in their sexuality and/or on the effect that some processes associated with their gender have on the control of their diabetes, the information is very scarce.
The lack of information and guidance from health professionals not only makes women feel that they have few resources, but also causes many of them to feel disconcerted and even accompanied by a feeling of guilt.
This has been one of the key issues that have been addressed during the Diabetes Experience Dayorganized by Canal Diabeteswhere the data of an online survey carried out on more than 500 women with diabetes from all over Spain were exposed, in collaboration with the platform for women with diabetes, Diabefem.
a taboo subject
According to the survey, more than 90% of women say they have never discussed their sexuality and its impact on their blood glucose with a healthcare professional.
And it is that, the 93% of the respondents did not receive information at any time on the effect of menopause on blood glucose, andl 60% recognizes the same situation regarding the menstrual cycle.
“Many women consider it taboo to talk to their endocrine team about how their sexuality affects their diabetes,” she says. María José Salmerón, president of the diabetes association in Albacete and person with diabetes.
Some issues as important as the preparation or planning of a pregnancy, or even the metabolic effect of being pregnant, are issues that are usually avoided in medical consultation, as pointed out by the Dr. María José Picón, from the Virgen de la Victoria Hospital in Malaga.
“He 50% of women with diabetes do not plan their pregnancy with their diabetes care team, even undergoing assisted reproductive techniques”, clarifies Picón.
The lack of information, very present
On the other hand, the survey also confirms that almost 6 out of 10 women They acknowledge having had look for information on your own.
Thus, the 75% states that his health professional has never told him about the effect of contraceptives in managing your diabetes.
Image of the event ‘Diabetes Experience Day’A panorama that reveals the scarcity of information surrounding this reality and to which are added other issues that remain unresolved, such as sick leave in pregnant women with diabetes or the problem that until now 70% of the women asked feel that the responsibility in caring for their children is not equitable.
“All this shows that even the initial education that women receive is basically aimed at self-care, probably based fundamentally on the idea of procreation,” clarifies the psychologist Gemma Peralta.
In this same line, the 75% of the women who have been asked express a guilty feeling for not knowing how to control their diabetes in situations such as menstruation, pregnancy or menopause.
There’s still much to do
As a result of the debate held, the lack of information that continues to revolve around women’s sexuality has been evidenced, as well as the need to carry out more studies that make visible the reality of women with diabetes.
The nutritionist at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Marina Llobetensures that “the need to plan and carry out studies with a gender perspective is confirmed to provide scientific evidence to the experiences perceived and reported by women who have diabetes or who are caregivers of people with diabetes.”