My 29 year old boyfriend was diagnosed with diabetes a month ago and has been advised to take insulin injections, but no one in his family has had it. He is really eating right and his taking injections right, but I am really worried bout the complications that might arise. I have several questions:

Will complications still arise even if he gets the injections right?
How many years might it take for the complications to arise?
Will he gradually lose interest in sex?
If I have a baby with him, what chance is there that the baby will get diabetes? That is my deepest concern.

Even though we don’t have enough information available to judge your boyfriend’s actual metabolic control and insulin therapy, your doubts should be allayed. Most, if not all, diabetologists have adopted the basic principles of self-management of diabetes (also called empowerment of the patient) and place them on intensified insulin treatment (i.e., basal/bolus regimens). This is to me the best answer to your quite appropriate doubts, and I am sure that if he adopts this insulin program (as he seems to be doing, from your letter), most if not all risks for complications (including problems with sex) will decrease, and he will be able to have a pretty normal life. His hemoglobin A1c should then stabilize at 6.5% or less. The risk for his offspring developing diabetes is about 6%.

All this is very feasible nowadays, provided your boyfriend is followed by a team involved in the care of people with type 1 diabetes.

MS