Diabetes, Men, and Sex

By Anne Pappert and Chris Woolston, M.S.

Sexual dysfunction. You've seen the ads on television, you've heard the jokes, and, if you're like most men, you've tried your best to block it from your mind. But if you have diabetes, this is one touchy subject you shouldn't ignore. A full 75 percent of diabetic men have some trouble achieving or maintaining an erection long enough to have intercourse.

But diabetes doesn't have to be a deathblow to your sex life. You can protect your sexual functioning by keeping your diabetes under control. And if the condition has already started to derail your physical relationships, your doctor can help you get back on track.

How does diabetes cause sexual dysfunction?

Erections take teamwork from several parts of the body: Your brain makes you aroused, your nerves sense pleasurable feelings, and your arteries carry a flood of blood to the penis.

Heating Up the Bedroom at Any Age

by Alicia Potee

Lots of things get better with age—and these days, metaphors drawing on everything from wine to classic cars are so commonplace as to be cliché. But sex is one thing you won’t usually see topping that list.

It’s a bit of a myth, really—the idea that good sex is reserved for the young. Yet the notion is so pervasive that many older people have given up on a healthy sex life after 50. But the truth is that there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying emotional and physical intimacy long after you’ve reached retirement.

And yes, it can be better than ever. It just might require a little more “maintenance.”

Bringing Balance Back to the Bedroom

Why Porn Can Be Good For You (And Society)

Easy access to porn is blamed for everything from a decrease in male desire to poor body image in women. But are there social upsides?

  

A 2006 New York magazine story by Naomi Wolf warned that pornography is so seriously turning men off to real women that now, six years later, you’d think it’s a miracle there are any children in first grade. 

Porn has always had plenty of detractors, but since the web has brought it into our homes on demand, a multitude of 21st-century criticisms have been leveled at it. The breakup of relationships, violence, sexual pressure, body image problems for women and sexual addiction and dysfunction in men have all been blamed on the avid use of porn.
One could argue that all these things existed before search engines did; Henry VIII handily exemplified two or three. And is there no upside to having a world of human sexual wonders at your grown-up fingertips? Is the world in no way better for having a film called Bitanic? Let’s take a look past the implants and see if -- and when -- a little voyeurism is a good thing.

Why Sex Doesn’t Gross You Out When You’re Aroused

Getting turned on overrides women's natural disgust response, a study suggests, making them more willing to do things they otherwise wouldn't

By ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN | @acsifferlin

If you think about it, sex is actually sort of disgusting, what with all the sweat, saliva, fluids and smells. So much so that a group of researchers from the Netherlands got to thinking, How do people enjoy sex at all?

According to their small new study, people — at least women — may be able to get over the “ick” factor associated with sex by getting turned on. Sexual arousal overrides the natural disgust response, the researchers found, and allows women to willingly engage in behaviors that they might normally find repugnant.

The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Groningen, involved 90 women who were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group watched a “female friendly” erotic video; another watched a video of high-adrenaline sports like skydiving or rafting, designed to be arousing but not sexually so; and the third group watched a neutral video clip of a train.

Am I too old for sex at 70?

I’m 70 and we’ve been married for 50 years. He tells me I should no longer want it because I’m old.

By Coleen Nolan

Getty

Dear Coleen,

My husband isn’t interested in sex any more.

I’m 70 and we’ve been married for 50 years. He tells me I should no longer want it because I’m old.

S h a m e l e s s S e x

I'm a pretty ordinary, family-loving, housework-avoiding, diet-flunking woman.

by Pamela Madsen in Shameless Woman


I've been told that embracing my sexuality is to dance with danger. To talk about it openly is to fall into a bottomless pit where everything I hold dear will go down with me- family, home, my flourishing career. Well, we'll see. Going public with what polite society says is best left under the covers has its risks. Truth to tell, I'm a little scared. But that's a small price to pay for becoming shameless.

Does that make me a sex radical? Nah. Not even close. All it makes me is a whole, natural woman. A pretty ordinary, ambitious, family-loving, housework-avoiding, diet-flunking everyday woman. In other words, an over-amped, chubby Better Crocker in stilettos.

Becoming shameless has been my personal evolutionary process, one that got jump started in midlife. At the time, I wasn't all that interested in having sex with my husband of many, many years (the only man I'd ever slept with, by the way). I enjoyed it when we did make love, but I didn't actively seek it out. Did that mean I had low libido? Was I physically or psychologically deficient or dysfunctional? Was there something wrong with me? Was I like millions of other women who successfully boxed off their sexuality from everything else we are?

Sex Is a Reflection of Oneness

Difficulties in a couple’s sex life often reflect deeper issues in their relationship.

by Dave Boehi

“I wish we would enjoy each other in bed more often, but my spouse rarely wants to make love. We have almost no sex life.”

When you just read that quote, did you assume that it was made by a man, or a woman? Conventional wisdom holds that husbands generally desire to have sex in their marriage more often than wives. But it appears that a growing number of marriages are experiencing the opposite problem, with wives frustrated that their husbands are uninterested in sexual relations.