Talking about, you know, guy stuff.

So, um, yeah. Erectile dysfunction, impotence, loss of libido, the end of the world, whatever you want to call it. Maybe not the easiest aspect of diabetes to discuss, but it’s definitely an important one. Since it’s often the thing that gets men into the doctor’s office in the first place (“My feet hurt? Yeah, whatever. Blurry vision? Not too bad. But THAT? Time to see a doctor.”), it’s worth talking about.

In an article amusingly titled There’s Life in the Old Chap Yet, The Times Online discusses some of the causes and symptoms of ED in diabetics. The article states that most long-term diabetic men suffer from some degree of ED. At the age of 50, half of diabetic men are starting to have some issues, and by 70, three out of four are affected.

The article goes on to describe exactly why ED happens, particularly to diabetics, but I’ll spare you the details. It does mention that 64 percent of diabetic ED sufferers benefit from drugs like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, but it really doesn’t address just how important that can be to families who are dealing with ED. For a lot of diabetics, particularly patients under 50, not only does it help restore their sex life to their pre-diabetic state, but it can actually dramatically improve their, you know, performance.

As my mother said about my late diabetic father, “If they’d had Viagra twenty-five years ago, I wouldn’t have been nearly so tempted to smother him with a pillow.”

She didn’t, by the way. Smother him with a pillow, I mean.

(via The Times Online, UK. Thanks, Hsien, for sending this to me. I’ll try not to read anything into it.)