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Moms do the Darnedest Things My son wants a new mother. At the age of thirteen, I can hardly blame him, because what I'm about to do is really going to embarrass him. Last week I was contacted by a television producer. On Sunday, March 20 at 7:00 pm Eastern on CNBC, his team is launching a new and exciting diabetes talk show called dLifeTV. In the relaxed style of the popular daytime show, The View, dLifeTV will introduce viewers to a panel of entertaining and knowledgeable hosts, and lots of interesting guests. The hosts include former Miss America/author, Nicole Johnson Baker, actor/comedian/radio personality, J. Anthony Brown, comedian/talk show host, Mother Love, and actor Jim Turner. They all have diabetes. Each show will feature celebrity guests including actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, authors, business professionals and others, who will share how diabetes impacts their lives. There will be regular medical, fitness and nutrition contributors, celebrity chefs, guest diabetes educators, location features, interaction with the studio audience…and me. I've been invited to discuss sex and intimacy on one of the programs, and I will talk about issues that moms are NOT supposed to know about. As you can imagine, my son is mortified. I'm thrilled and honored to be able to bring these personal topics out from behind closed doors. The most important lesson regarding diabetes-related sexual issues is that help is available for both men and women. Men who have difficulty controlling their diabetes can experience erectile problems and may lose interest in being sexual. Women with poorly controlled diabetes may have trouble lubricating, achieving orgasm, and may also experience a decrease in libido. Often individuals with diabetes-related sexual problems are too shy to discuss them with their healthcare team. Instead of getting the help they deserve, they suffer in silence. "When I told a few friends that I had type 2 diabetes, my golf buddy began to laugh. He said that he had diabetes also and had kissed his sex life goodbye more than two years ago. I was devastated. I immediately phoned my doctor to get his thoughts on this. Thankfully, he told me not to worry - things would be fine, and if any troubles arose, we would treat them immediately."- Hal Most of the topics that I'd like to present come from the new book that I wrote with William Polonsky, PhD, CDE and Steven Edelman, MD. The Secrets of Living and Loving with Diabetes highlights ways to keep diabetes from undermining personal relationships. In other words, it is a book about sex and intimacy. When the producer asked for suggestions for future shows, I listed several of these topics including: (Originally published in the eDiets.com Living With Diabetes newsletter.)
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