[Clinico-statistical data on the sexualtiy of the male diabetic]

In 60 male diabetics aged between 16 and 60 followed up for 5 years, libido was found to be reduced in 58% and potency in 63%. The alteration in sex function would not appear to be related to the duration or gravity of the diseases, nor with the existence of vasculopathy; it was, however, related to age (a prevalence in elderly subjects) and to the existence of neuropathy. In one third of subjects, impotence preceded or was contemporaneous with clinical diagnosis of diabetes. Spermiogenesis alterations, present in more than half the cases, were closely related to gonadotropinuria LH; this finding, added to personal results and those obtained previously by other researchers, suggests a two-fold hypophyseal and Leydigian pathogenesis of impotence in the diabetic.