There was a time when women who had diabetes were strongly advised to avoid getting pregnant. Attempting to produce a biologically-related family was just too dangerous [source: Brucker]. Fortunately, diabetic women are no longer given that heartbreaking direction from caregivers. Diabetics can, and routinely do, get pregnant and give birth to healthy children. Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, however, can still be a major factor in fertility for men or women.
There are challenges diabetics face in getting a partner pregnant, becoming pregnant, maintaining a pregnancy and ensuring they give birth to a healthy, full-term baby. Diabetes (Type 1 or Type 2) can harm sperm [source: Paddock]. Type 2 diabetes can make it far more difficult to become pregnant. There's an increased rate of miscarriage among diabetics in general, and women with Type 1 diabetes are somewhat more likely to have a baby with a birth defect or a child born prematurely [source: MyDr]. However, all of these challenges can largely be managed by being attentive to and responding to signals from the body.
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In order to understand why diabetes affects reproduction, it helps to have a general understanding of the disease in both of its forms. A healthy human body digests food and -- with the help of a hormone called insulin -- transports a form of sugar known as glucose through the bloodstream to cells for energy. Diabetics have flaws in their metabolism.
A Type 1 diabetic's body doesn't make insulin. The body of a Type 2 diabetic either fails to create enough insulin, the person's cells don't react properly to the insulin or both malfunctions occur [source: Nordqvist].
Click ahead to learn the specifics of how Type 1 diabetes influences reproduction and how it can be managed.
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