Men may exerperience unique challenges with diabetes that do not affect women in the same ways, including those that affect sexual health, body hair, growth hormones, and more. This guide may offer help navigating these issues.

Men with diabetes can face specific health challenges, particularly concerning sexual and reproductive health.

Based on current research, here are the unique health issues men with diabetes may experience.

These issues are often a direct result of the nerve damage (neuropathy) and blood vessel damage (angiopathy) caused by chronic high blood glucose levels, or hormonal imbalances like low testosterone.

Low testosterone

Men with type 2 diabetes are about twice as likely to have low testosterone as men without the condition.

Low T can cause symptoms that include:

  • low libido (sexual desire)
  • erectile dysfunction (ED)
  • reduced lean muscle mass
  • fatigue
  • depressive mood and symptoms

While women also produce testosterone and can experience low libido from diabetes, the direct link to overall sex hormone deficiency in men is a major factor.

Men with type 1 diabetes may also experience low testosterone, though it’s not as common as it is with T2D. Studies show that men with T1D may have low calculated free testosterone, the form that is readily available to the body’s tissues. Men with T1D may also experience insulin resistance, which can contribute to hormonal imbalance and lead to low testosterone.

ED

ED is one of the most common sexual health issues for men with diabetes, often affecting over half of men with the condition.

Research shows that men with diabetes face a much higher risk and earlier onset than men without diabetes.

This can also be an early warning sign of underlying heart disease.

Retrograde ejaculation

Nerve damage (autonomic neuropathy) can prevent the bladder sphincter muscle from closing during orgasm. This causes semen to flow backward into the bladder instead of out of the penis, leading to reduced or “dry” ejaculation.

While this can be treated, at times it may directly lead to infertility.

Fertility

While women with diabetes may also face fertility challenges related to hormonal imbalance and conception, the specific impact on sperm and the reproductive tract is unique to men. Retrograde ejaculation further compounds male-factor infertility.

Men with diabetes may experience a reduction in semen quality (concentration, volume, and motility) and an increased risk of sperm DNA damage.

Hair loss in relation to diabetes can affect both men and women, but it’s also one that may affect men more dramatically in different parts of the body.

Known as alopecia, hair loss is often related to diabetes because of high blood sugar damage to blood vessels. This can reduce the oxygen and nutrient supply to hair follicles, disrupting the body’s hair growth cycle.

This may contribute to existing conditions for men with diabetes, including male pattern baldness or general thinning.

Men with diabetes who also have the diabetes complication, peripheral artery disease, may also experience hair loss beneath the knees or in the lower limbs, because of reduced circulation.

There is a long-standing association between T1D glucose management and stunted growth or delayed puberty, and it can affect both boys and girls before and during puberty.

While this isn’t unique to adult men with diabetes, it’s more of an issue in pediatric diabetes.

Cardiovascular-related complications aren’t specific to men with diabetes, as any sex or gender with the condition faces a higher risk of cardiovascular concerns because of higher blood sugars and long-term diabetes.

However, given some of the unique health concerns men with diabetes face, they could have a higher risk of heart disease.

This includes ED, which may serve as an early marker or predictor of cardiovascular disease. This is because blood vessels supplying blood to a man’s penis are much smaller than those supplying the heart. If blockages or damage to the blood vessels are severe enough down there, then that could indicate a similar or potentially more serious vascular problem could develop in the coronary arterties.

Men may face unique challenges with diabetes that do not affect women in the same ways. This can include symptoms or complications that affect sexual health, body hair, growth hormones, and more. This guide may offer help navigating these issues.