What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (blood sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Diabetes falls into two main categories: type 1, which usually occurs during childhood or adolescence, and type 2, the most common form of the disease, which usually occurs after age 45, but is increasingly being diagnosed in children and adolescents.

How Does It Affect Women?

Approximately 9.1 million or 8.9% of all women in the United States have diabetes, however, about a third of them do not know it. The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2-4 times higher among African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander women than among white women. Because of the increasing lifespan of women and the rapid growth of minority populations, the number of women in the United States at high risk for diabetes and its complications is increasing.

Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States, and it has no cure. Women with diabetes have an increased risk of vaginal infections and complications during pregnancy. For women who do not currently have diabetes, pregnancy brings the risk of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes develops in 2% to 5% of all pregnancies but disappears when a pregnancy is over. Women who have had gestational diabetes are at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Women and Diabetic Complications

• The risk for cardiovascular disease, the most common complication attributable to diabetes, is more serious among women than men. Deaths from heart disease in women with diabetes have increased 23 percent over the past 30 years, compared to a 27 percent decrease in women without diabetes.
• The risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is 50 percent higher among women than men. DKA, often called diabetic coma, is a condition brought on by poorly controlled diabetes and marked by high blood glucose levels and ketones (by-products of fat metabolism in the blood). Although it is accompanied by high blood glucose levels, DKA is not caused by high blood sugar; it is caused by lack of insulin. Before insulin therapy was available, DKA was the predominant cause of death from diabetes.
• Women with diabetes are 7.6 times as likely to suffer peripheral vascular disease (PVD) than women without diabetes. PVD is a disorder resulting in reduced flow of blood and oxygen to tissues in the feet and legs. The principal symptom of PVD is intermittent claudication (pain in the thigh, calf, or buttocks during exercise). 

http://www.fda.gov/WOMENS/taketimetocare/diabetes/