Safety and hypos

You may find that your blood glucose levels can go high or low either during or after sex. It’s important to remember that sex is a form of physical activity, so it may cause your blood glucose to drop. The chance of you having a hypo is also increased if you’ve been drinking alcohol as well.

A good practice to follow is to check your blood glucose levels before and after having sex and keep something sugary nearby just in case you do have a hypo.

If you’re with someone new– or with anyone who doesn’t know about your diabetes and what that entails – then you should make extra sure you handle any hypos yourself. You can tell your partner and be open about it, or you can manage it by yourself and go to the bathroom when you need to test.

The main thing is that you keep monitoring your glucose levels and that you take more sugar when you need to, whether this involves grabbing some food with your partner, drinking something sugary, or taking some dextrose tablets in private. It might even be an idea to try to keep your blood glucose a little high if the alcohol has kicked in and you’re still planning on using up energy. 

You might feel that talking about your diabetes or having to focus on managing it is a bit of a mood killer. However, it means less chance of having something bad happen, like having a severe hypo or even losing consciousness and leaving your partner panicking and with no idea what to do.