Male sexual functi9on gradually decrease in parallel with aging. Al the majority of diabetes mellitus develops later in life, mostly beyond the fifth decade, impotence in the diabetic patients can be ignored by physician as well as patients.
Considerable evidence, however, indicates that diabetes mellitus does affect the male sexual function more significantly in diabetics than in non-diabetic is suspected. We studied 312 male diabetic patients and 233 non-diabetic male patients who
were
neither on medication nor have systemic nor have systemic diseases affecting sexual dysfunction. We analyzed the questionnaire regarding libido, erectile potency, intercourse frequency and partner's satisfaction, and we got several results as
followings.
In the diabetics, the prevalence of impotence was 24.4%,which was significantly higher than that(13.7%) of the control(p<0.01). Although the prevalence of impotence increases with aging in both groups, it was significantly higher in diabetic
under
the
7th decade and positively related to the disease duration. The erectile potency was also significantly lower in the diabetics. The scores of libido, intercourse frequency and partner's satisfaction were significantly lower in the diabetic
compared
with
those in the control. The erectile potency was revealed to be higher in the patients whose blood glucose levels were controlled, compared with that of the patients with the uncontrolled levels.
These results suggest that the prevalence of impotence is similar in Korean diabetic patients to those of the western ocntries, and the early treatment of diabetes mellitus is impontant for the prevention of impotence.
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