Hi, So I’m writing a research paper for my English 1A class. I had to choose a topic about romantic relationships that applied to me. Being that I am a type one diabetic myself I chose “How T1D affects romantic relationships” Iwant to know How Diabetes has affected your (past/present) relationships. You can be the diabetic or the diabetics partner just please list 3 things you feel affect your ROMANTIC relationship the most. for example: do you feel as a diabetic that your partner is hard on you when blood sugars are out of control? Do you feel that your lack of care for your diabetes have negative impacts on communication, or sex life? what ever you feel affects your relationship the most due to diabetes! Please be as thorough as possible! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE
I feel that having this disease puts a burden on my relationship and my partner because they worry about me more than I worry about myself. Our daily conversation includes “How has your blood sugar been?” and I feel bad when it’s a roller coaster (highs followed by lows) because then my partner is disappointed in me and pressures me to take better care of myself. With this new diagnosis, the lack of control has affected our sex life tremendously because I have no drive to be intimate. Diabetes also affects our relationship especially when we try to plan something for fun such as going out to dinner or planning a trip. We have to make accommodations like carrying extra insulin, glucose tablets, an extra glucose meter, pen needles, etc,. just to prepare for the worst.
Hope this helps!
Thanks soo much! it does!I feel the same way. I often feel afraid to tell my boyfriend what my glucose number is because it may be high and he also becomes disappointed and even frustrated with my glucose readings.
I know exactly what you mean, it’s almost better if they don’t even ask what the number is you know? Mostly because if its a high number, I’m already frustrated with myself for not having better control and then when they find out, you have to deal with what they say or do. It’s disgruntling.
I don’t find it has a negative impact, even now that I am pregnant, on our relationship.
My partner of almost 5 years is pretty good about it all; he doesn’t ask me how my blood sugars are doing unless I’m acting strange and he’s worried I might be running high or low because really, there’s nothing he could do about it anyways. He trusts me to take care of myself since I’ve been doing this for 21 years and he’s only been around it for 5 years. He gets up in the middle of the night to get me sugar when I need it without complaining and when I use my Dexcom, he now checks it after saying goodbye in the morning to see what my blood sugar is at/around (I usually fall right back asleep until it’s time for me to get up) but only since I got pregnant.
Now that I’m pregnant if I curse after testing because I need to correct a slight high or correct a low he’ll go “Natalie that’s not good” but not in a judgmental way just concerned. He does get really upset when I go as low as 2.5-range but I think that’s mostly because the lowest I had been around him before the pregnancy was 3.5 so it scares him. My first trimester was hard on him because I was having so many more lows (multiples a day/night vs once in a while prior to pregnancy), until my insulin doses were reduced enough, so he was worried about me constantly especially if he wasn’t home so I think that’s really the only negative impact on our relationship.
I have never made a big issue of my diabetes and I think that might be why? I had no memory of life before diabetes so it’s like breathing to me and I think that if I wasn’t that way, we might have more issues.
I don’t find that having diabetes has negative impact on my relationship either. My husband never ask me about blood sugars. I’m always the one to tell him. He gets concerned when my sugar drops below 3, but helps me out by checking my sugar for me and getting something for me to eat. I’ve had diabetes for 19 years so to me I don’t make a big deal out of anything. I can’t change it and neither can he. I think in some ways my husband has more respect and compassion for me having to deal with this on a daily basis. My husband is a big help and support for me in a positive way, because without him I don’t think I would have gotten my blood sugar under control. I find that people that don’t know me or kind of know my husband and myself make a bigger deal and make it uncomfortable for me at times.