Find out how hyperglycemia affects your sexual health.
Hyperglycemia occurs when the level of sugar in your blood is too high. The opposite of hyperglycemia is hypoglycemia, which occurs when your blood sugar levels are too low.
Here we discuss high blood sugar, what causes it and how it can affect your sexual health.
Hyperglycemia usually affects people who have diabetes. You may have heard episodes of hyperglycemia referred to as "hypers" or "having a hyper."
If your body has too little insulin or can't use insulin properly, high blood glucose (sugar) levels are often the result. Hyperglycemia is diagnosed if your blood sugar levels reach more than 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) before a meal and more than 175 mg/dL two hours after a meal.
However, you don't have to have diabetes to develop hyperglycemia; it can also occur in people without the disease. Usually, the causes of hyperglycemia in people without diabetes include a major illness, a significant injury or certain chronic conditions.
If you have prediabetes and your blood sugar level is higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes, this is sometimes referred to as nondiabetic hyperglycemia.
You have a higher risk of developing diabetes if you have prediabetes.
You most commonly see hyperglycemia in people with diabetes. Hyperglycemia can affect people with any type of diabetes, such as type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy. If you are diagnosed with diabetes, it means your body can't make insulin or can't use insulin properly.
While the aim of treating diabetes is to keep your blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible, at some point, you are likely to experience hyperglycemia. A mild episode of hyperglycemia isn't a cause for concern, because it can usually be treated easily or even resolve on its own.
However, hyperglycemia can be dangerous if blood sugar levels are too high or stay high for long periods. Symptoms are not always easy to identify and may develop slowly over days or weeks.
The symptoms of hyperglycemia can be subtle and often go unnoticed. They include:
As mentioned, hyperglycemia usually affects people who have diabetes. If you have diabetes, you might develop hyperglycemia if you:
If you do not have diabetes, you can develop hyperglycemia if you:
Left untreated, regular high blood sugar levels can lead to the development of other diabetes complications, such as neuropathy—a disease that affects one or more peripheral nerves and can lead to numbness and weakness—neuropathic joint disease, non-healing or slow-healing wounds in the feet and other extremities, and retinopathy, which can seriously affect your eyes.
Very high blood sugar levels can cause a couple of life-threatening conditions:
If you have been diagnosed with prediabetes and you have nondiabetic hyperglycemia, it can lead to diabetes if it is not controlled.
Glucose is essential to brain function and energy maintenance. Even if you don't have diabetes or hyperglycemia, sugar levels can affect your mood. Poor glycemic regulation can cause symptoms such as irritability, anxiety and worry.
A 2017 prospective study identified that high sugar consumption from sweet food and beverages has an adverse effect on long-term psychological health. And higher rates of depression have been linked to high sugar intake in many other studies.
If you're concerned that your sugar intake is negatively affecting your mood, there are ways to adapt your lifestyle and manage your sugar levels.
If you're generally healthy and looking to reduce your sugar intake or maintain healthy blood sugar levels, you can take some key steps:
In addition, if you have diabetes:
Sexual health is not always straightforward. Several organs and body systems can affect your sexual function.
Women with diabetes are more likely to experience vaginal dryness than women without it, because high blood sugar levels can cause damage to the blood vessels in the vagina. This leads to a lack of lubrication, which can make sex quite painful.
While anyone can get candidiasis—a fungal infection caused by a yeast called Candida—you're more likely to get it if you have diabetes and high blood sugar levels, because the sugar in your urine can cause bacteria to grow. Cystitis is another common side effect of diabetes and uncontrolled blood glucose levels.
Men with diabetes can experience two sexual health problems similar to women: They're more likely to get candidiasis or a urinary tract infection (UTI). However, an additional problem for men with diabetes is erectile dysfunction (ED).
Persistent high blood sugar levels can damage men's blood vessels and nerves, including the ones that supply the penis. When the blood flow to your penis becomes restricted, it can decrease sensation and lead to erectile dysfunction. Nerve damage can also affect the feel and strength of an erection.
A study published in 2016 researched 151 men with diabetes and 60 men without diabetes. Researchers found 37 percent of people with type 1 diabetes had ED compared with only 6 percent of those without the disease. Erectile dysfunction can occur much earlier in men with type 1 diabetes because it's a lifelong condition, but it can also happen in men with type 2 diabetes.
There are many ways to manage erectile dysfunction, and controlling diabetes and blood sugar levels is a positive place to start. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and reducing stress are also good ways to combat ED, and you can explore other treatment options with your healthcare provider.
Diabetes and hyperglycemia are not the same, but hyperglycemia is a common symptom of diabetes.
Diabetes causes your blood sugar (glucose) levels to become too high. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps glucose move from the food you eat into your body's cells to be converted to energy. If you have diabetes, you either produce insufficient insulin or the insulin does not work correctly. Ultimately, this means you can't break down sugar into energy.
Hyperglycemia is a symptom of diabetes when the level of sugar in your blood is too high. However, you can also get nondiabetic hyperglycemia from trauma, severe illness and other conditions.
The signs of hyperglycemia are subtle and can build up over days or even weeks. Examples are consistent thirst, dry mouth, frequent urination, fatigue, blurred vision, unintentional weight loss, recurrent bladder and skin infections, headaches and nausea.
An occasional episode of hyperglycemia is unlikely to cause any long-term harm if it resolves quickly. Repeated episodes of high blood sugar levels over a long period can lead to diabetic complications such as nerve and blood vessel damage.
Extremely high blood sugar can be life-threatening if you develop diabetic ketoacidosis
(DKA) or hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state (HHS).
