Sex plays an important role in a healthy relationship with your partner. But if you have a chronic condition such as diabetes, your libido may be lagging. "Low libido is common in women with any kind of chronic disease, because if you are not healthy, sex is not likely to be the first thing on your mind," says Mario Skugor, MD, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

However, diabetes can dampen your desire in more direct ways too. The disease can damage the body's blood vessels, thus impeding blood flow to organs including the vagina, explains William Petit, MD, medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center affiliate at The Hospital of Central Connecticut. This can impair a woman's ability to become aroused and reduces vaginal lubrication, which can make for painful sexual intercourse.

In addition, "if your blood sugars are not well controlled, it may acutely affect nerve functioning," says Dr. Petit. This condition, called diabetic neuropathy, involves damage to the nerves and may contribute to problems with sexual dysfunction.

Indeed, as many as 35 percent of women with diabetes experience some type of sexual dysfunction, including low libido, difficulty getting aroused and difficulty achieving orgasm, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Your first step is to manage your blood glucose levels. When diabetes is well controlled, you are at a decreased risk for many complications, including sexual difficulties. Here's how to handle some of the conditions that you may be experiencing as a result of your diabetes, so you can get your groove back.

The condition: Decreased arousal

The low-libido lowdown: Over the long term, high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) can damage the blood vessels and reduce blood flow to various parts of the body, including the vagina and clitoris. Limited blood flow to these sexual organs can make getting aroused more difficult.

What you can do:: "Part of the solution is communicating with your partner," says Dr. Petit. The answer to arousal may lie in more foreplay (good news to most women!). Foreplay can help stimulate arousal and increase blood flow to those organs. "If your partner is in a rush, the solution may be simply slowing down."