Diabetes itself does not require different treatment between the genders, but the disease does increase complications from other health issues in women.
Diabetes and heart disease
The number one killer of women in the United States, heart disease, is more likely to occur in women with diabetes than otherwise healthy females. Diabetes acts differently on a women’s total cholesterol than it does on a man’s. Triglyceride levels affect the good cholesterol, HDL, by driving it down. When combined with the bad cholesterol, LDL, this increases a women’s risk of heart disease. This risk factor can be circumvented with a healthy lifestyle and regular medical checkups to make adjustments in diet and lifestyle choices.
Diabetic women have a six times greater risk for suffering a heart attack than other women. The risk factor is the same as that of someone who has already had one heart attack. Diabetic women are more likely to die from a first heart attack than diabetic men. For this reason, close monitoring of blood pressure is recommended as well as annual blood work for cholesterol.
Although women outlive men, when a woman has diabetes, she loses that advantage. A female diabetic’s lifespan is shortened by 8.2 years, while a man diabetic only incurs a shortage of 7.5 years.
Diabetes and kidney disease
Kidney disease, a prominent risk factor in both male and female diabetics, has a greater tendency to show up early in diabetic women than non-diabetic women. Typically kidney disease will not manifest itself in a woman until after menopause when estrogen levels drop.
Depression is two times as likely to strike female diabetics as male diabetics.