NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with type 1 diabetes maybe more likely to experience certain sexual problems than their healthy peers, researchers report.

Unlike the far more common type 2 diabetes, type 1 usually is diagnosed in childhood and involves an aberrant immune system attack on the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

The preliminary study found that 27% of diabetic women reported problems such as decreased vaginal lubrication, pain during intercourse and decreased arousal, compared with 15% of healthy women.

Not surprisingly, women with medical complications associated with diabetes reported more sexual problems than diabetic women without complications. There was no association between sexual dysfunction and a woman'sage, body mass index, menopausal status or use of hormone replacement therapy, according to the report in the April issue of Diabetes Care.

The new findings support those of a recent study showing a link between diabetes and sexual dysfunction inmen. In that study, men with type 2 diabetes were significantly more likely to experience erectile dysfunction than men in the general population.

"Women with diabetes are clearly at risk for decreased desire and(painful sex)," Paul Enzlin from Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues write.

The study included 97 women with diabetes and 145 healthy women. Allwere at least 18 years old and lived in Belgium. Nearly 11% of diabetic women and 7% of healthy women reported two or three sexual problems. A greater percentage of diabetic women reported decreased desire and lubrication,and pain during intercourse.

The study also revealed a link between depression and sexual dysfunction among all women. Women with sexual problems were more than four times as likely as women without these problems to be depressed. Also,significantly more diabetic women reported marital problems.

"In both women with diabetes and (healthy) women, sexual dysfunction seems to be related to psychological rather than other factors," Enzlin's team reports.

"Sexuality as such is essentially a psychosomatic event in which both physical condition and psychological functioning are involved," Enzlin told Reuters Health. He noted that as a chronic disease, diabetes has both physical and psychological effects, both of which can influence sexual function.

He and his colleagues note that the findings are based on small numbers of women and therefore warrant further research. Enzlin said such research should investigate both psychological and physiological variables to determine the mechanism underlying sexual problems in women with diabetes.

In the meantime, the study can pave the way for new therapies for female sexual dysfunction in women, writes Dr. Lois Jovanovic of the Sansum Medical Research Institute in SantaBarbara, California. In an accompanying editorial she states that the study pinpoints decreased lubrication as a key to female sexual dysfunction.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2002;25:672-677.

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