Damage to nerves in the sexual organs, causing difficulty for both men and women to experience normal sexual response. In men, nerve damage can cause erectile dysfunction. In women, it leads to difficulty with arousal, lubrication, and orgasm.
Autonomic neuropathy can also affect the nerves that serve the heart and control blood pressure, as well as nerves in the lungs and eyes. Additionally, it can cause hypoglycemia unawareness, a condition in which people no longer experience the warning symptoms of low blood glucose—also called blood sugar, levels.
People with diabetes are also more likely to suffer from other types of neuropathy including proximal neuropathy and focal neuropathy.
Proximal neuropathy
It starts with pain in the thighs, hips, buttocks, or legs, usually on one side of the body. This type of neuropathy is more common in those with type 2 diabetes and older adults with diabetes. Proximal neuropathy causes weakness in the legs. It also causes the inability to go from a sitting to a standing position without help
Focal neuropathy
This affects specific nerves in the head, torso, or leg. It may cause inability to focus the eye, double vision, aching behind the eye, Bell’s palsy (paralysis on one side of the face), or pain in the front of the thigh, chest, stomach, shin, foot, or chest. Focal neuropathy is usually painful and unpredictable but will resolve over a few weeks or months and does not cause long-term damage.