People with diabetes

Children need a healthy mother, not one with incapacitating complications, an unstable character due to the highs and lows of blood glucose levels, or who might endanger them by losing control while having a severe hypoglycaemic reaction. Children need a full-time caregiver. A responsible woman educated to take command of her diabetes can fulfil this role just as well as a woman without diabetes; sometimes even better.

Islam instructs believers to take care of their health. Prophet Muhammad said, "There are two graces which many people misevaluate; (they are) health and free time (for doing good)". This is why taking care of the body is the foremost duty of the woman as she takes care of all the dietary and health concerns of herself and her family.

Diabetes poses a serious threat to developing countries like Bangladesh. Despite advances in diabetes treatment, management and self-care, women with diabetes in rural Bangladesh are rarely able to enjoy the fruits of this progress.

We, women with diabetes have known it for as long as we have been women with diabetes: our problems associated with sexual function are a result of our moods, our sense of self, our body image, our psychological state, as well as our degree of control over our lives and our diabetes. At last the scientific literature has caught up with us.

Any girl will be able to tell you that life as a teenager comes with its own challenges. Mix these challenges with diabetes and you have a cocktail of perplexing bewilderment and confusion at times! These three testimonies from South Africa show that diabetes in the teenage years can be scary, but ultimately can make you a stronger person.

When he left home to attend his regular diabetes clinic, Ray Msengana was already feeling unwell. But when he was told that the treatment of his Type 2 diabetes was to change from tablets to insulin therapy, he rapidly felt a lot worse. In this candid account of life with diabetes, Ray Msengana describes the affective impact of the condition, and makes a call for changes in the way diabetes is managed.

Listen to the voice of a young girl Lonnie, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 16. Imagine that she is deeply involved in the social security system. She lives with her mother and two siblings in a working class part of a small town. She is at a special school for problematic youth, and her carers are seriously concerned about how she is going to manager her diabetes.

Increasing the knowledge of people with diabetes gives them motivation and promotes better diabetes control. This, in turn, enhances quality of life and delays, if not totally prevents, the onset of complications. The Danish Diabetes Education Centre, opened in Odense, 1993, does just that, by providing teaching and assistance to people with diabetes and their friends and families. The centre educates over 500 people in total each year.

Palma, Mallorca, 3-8 July, 2001. The VIII European Masters Championships in Swimming, Diving and Open Water Swimming took place. James Foley of the Diabetes Federation of Ireland’s and John Keeler, former Editor of Identity, the Federation’s magazine, were there to take part! James, from Dublin, is 39 years old and has had diabetes for 19 years. I, also of Dublin, am 30 and have had diabetes for 26 years.

Being a woman and having diabetes can mean double discrimination for women all over the world. Even more so in many developing countries, where women, whether they have diabetes or not, still have to fight harder than ever to achieve equal rights and equal opportunities. This article, however, will not offer a helpless victim's point of view.