Early Signs Of Diabetes In Men

Diabetes is a silent killer that affects your body in slow motion, and consequently, your body starts to observe so many other ailments. Medical research suggests that diabetes is equally affecting men and women, but men are more ignorant of this disease.

They do not pay attention to the early signs of diabetes, and eventually, they have to bear the brunt of it.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type that is prevailing excessively in the society and men are an easy victim of this disease because they tend to avoid visiting their doctors and delay the medical advice until or unless they have some severe issues.

We all know that ‘prevention is better than the cure’. So in this article, my effort is to inform men what they need to know, and the symptoms of diabetes that are unique to them. Men should also consider some common early warning signs too.

Warning Signs of Diabetes in Men

They are:

Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction or impotence is one of the most common symptoms of diabetes in men. Erectile Dysfunction refers to an inability of erection. Due to this problem, you may observe some issues in your sexual life.

Experts claim that 30 million people in the United States are having erectile dysfunction and in most of the cases, the root cause is diabetes. So, I cannot stress enough that men should consult their doctor as early as possible after noticing the signs of erectile dysfunction.

Low Sex Drive

Sometimes men do not feel the urge for sex. Medical and physical reasons can drive force behind this problem. Experts claim that low testosterone in people with diabetes is a key reason behind this symptom. This is also known as a type of sexual dysfunction, and can be an early sign of diabetes men need to pay attention to.

Retrograde Ejaculation

Retrograde ejaculation is another warning sign of diabetes in men. In retrograde ejaculation, semen gets released into the bladder, not to the penis. It means that there is less semen during ejaculation so this situation ultimately can lead to issues of fertility. This problem occurs due to the nerves damage at muscles which support your genitals as a result of diabetes.

As we all know that diabetes can affect the muscles significantly, so men should consult their doctors immediately after observing any issue like this.

Frequent Urination

Excessive or frequent urination is another sign of diabetes in men although different people observe it in different situations. In some cases, you may feel more need for urination, and in some cases, there may be pain or blood starts to appear in the urine. Sometimes you may feel hard to control the urine and may lose control over it.

Remember, diabetes is a silent killer that weakens your body. So among the early diabetes signs, the frequent urination is a leading symptom.

Those above are the signs and symptoms of diabetes that are unique to men noting women may also experience frequent urination and low sex drive to a certain extent due to diabetes. We have discussed the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes in women in another article.

Now let us discuss some general signs and symptoms of diabetes common to both men and women.

General Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

Those are as follows.

Excessive Thirst

Excessive thirst is a popular symptom of diabetes. When you are experiencing the problem of frequent urination, naturally you will feel you are in thirst.

As a result, some people consume up to 4 litres of water in a day. In the other hand, when there is frequent urination, it will pave the way for more consumption of water. So, this becomes a vicious cycle.

Fatigue

Fatigue can be mentally or physically, or it can be in both ways at the same time. You may often feel lethargic or exhausted and may need to rest again and again. When that happens, you may start to consider that this is just because of the overload of work or another reason, but not it is due to diabetes. But remember, when you observe this problem, you should pay attention to it because diabetes affects your body in so many ways and fatigue is among them.

A Notable Reduction in the Weight

Sometimes you may experience an unusual reduction in your body weight. Without conducting any extra physical activities, people with diabetes could lose their weight due to diabetes. There can be so many reasons for losing weight because of diabetes.

A couple of reasons are below.

• Firstly, your weight may reduce because of excessive urination. So many calories and sugar washed away from your body when you urinate frequently.
• Secondly, due to diabetes, your body starves, so you start to use the stored protein of your muscles as energy that also leads toward an excessive weight loss.

Recurrent Episodes of Thrush

Thrush is regarded as the yeast infection that is usually observed near some most personal parts of the body, in mouth and genitals.

In men, symptoms of thrush often observe at genitals. Then, they feel reluctant to share this symptom with others, even with doctors, which only make the situation worse.

You must remember that when the sugar level is high in the body, the thrush arises.

Smoking may worsen the symptoms of oral thrush.

So, men should pay attention to symptoms of thrush as it is also among the early signs of diabetes.

Itching Around the Genital Area

Diabetes is like a slow poison that irritates your body gradually. Sometimes, you may feel irritation and itching near the genital area.

When this happened, typically, we take it lightly and consider that it is just because of some skin issue or due to poor hygiene, but without the knowledge that diabetes can cause this symptom.

You should not ignore this symptom. You need to consult your doctor on an immediate basis.

Slow Wound Healing

We have seen so many diabetic patients who have wounds on their bodies. And even after so many visits to doctors, we only realize these wounds are due to the effects of diabetes on the nerves and blood flow. When the blood flow is restricted, our body takes time in healing any wounds or cuts.

Remember, in diabetes, hands and feet are more vulnerable for slow healing wounds as they get less blood flow as compare to the other parts of the body.

Blurred Vision

Blurred vision is also accounted among the early signs of diabetes. Diabetes affects the blood vessels and the lens of your eyes. When the sugar level is high in the body, excess sugar in the blood vessels of your eyes takes away the needed fluid from the tissues and cells of your eyes.

Although the blurred vision can be controlled easily once the sugar is controlled, we should catch this problem at the nick of time to avoid further complications. Remember, if not managed well you can lose your sight.

Dizziness

Diabetes is a disease that can affect a human body in so many ways, and dizziness is among one of those symptoms.

Dizziness can be due to many other reasons too, but when it is due to diabetes, its most prominently associate with signs of low blood pressure, dehydration, low sugar in the blood (hypoglycemia), etc.

When your blood pressure is low, the supply of blood to the brain gets restricted, so you start to feel dizzy. Dizziness is not good for the human body so it should be identified early and managed carefully.

Nausea and Vomiting

Nausea and vomiting are also considered a common sign of diabetes especially at episodes of high blood glucose levels. Although sometimes you observe it after using the medicines for diabetes, in most of the cases, it sits among the early signs of diabetes.

In people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, sometimes, nausea and vomiting referred to as the effect of blood sugar levels due to diabetes itself.

Increased Appetite

The term ‘polyphagia’ is used to explain the issue of increased appetite.

Usually, people experience hunger after a strenuous exercise or activity. But, in diabetes, sometimes people start to consume more food without any reason. This is an alarming situation that needs your attention because increased appetite ultimately leads to weight gains and obesity.

Numbness or Tingling in Extremities

Sometimes you may experience numbness or tingling in your hands and feet.

Men most likely take it lightly and ignore this condition. Or, sometimes they are used to delaying their visit until or unless the situation gets severe. That is not the right attitude, unfortunately, because it can be the result of diabetes.

Remember, as mentioned earlier, diabetes can damage your nerves including the ones send signals to your brain. When this signal gets interrupted, the numbness arises. Again, this symptom, if you ever experience it, needs your attention.

Infection in the Urinary Tract

Diabetes also causes and make you prone to infection in the urinary tract. When you feel pain or irritation while urination, you must not ignore it, as the infection in their urinary tract is very common in people with diabetes.

While these infections more common among women, men should never overlook symptoms of urinary tract infections. Otherwise, they may develop severe complications needing a visit to the Emergency Department.

Conclusion

In short, in this article we are identified there are so many early warning signs and symptoms of diabetes. The ones popular among men are erectile dysfunction, low sex drive, itching near genital areas, dizziness, nausea, extreme thirst, and weight loss etc., which need early intervention. Attention, early identification and management of d diabetes may help you to reverse diabetes and to protect the body from dreadful consequences which diabetes bring to your health and happiness.

Remember, diabetes can reduce your life span, so we should pay attention to the warning signs and symptoms of diabetes more attentively.