Lupus = bad for your sex life

Lupus is a nasty auto-immune disease, wherein your immune system pretty much attacks tissues all around your body, resulting in painful inflammation and general badness.

I know a couple of people with lupus or (SLE - Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) and man! are they sick sometimes. And I go on complaining about my allergies. Anyways, I was reading around the Internet today and came across a new book discussing the daily ins and outs of living with the disease. But the passage the publisher’s blog highlighted was actually about the effect of lupus on relationships. And it’s bad. Treatment for lupus (steroids) makes you all bloaty, the disease itself is exhausting, can mangle your hips (via arthritis) and dry you out down there..all is just no good for the sex life. Indeed, five years after diagnosis, around 50% of women (who are more likely to have lupus) are divorced

So, you could say the divorce rate is 50% anyways and there are lots of other reasons for a marriage to break up in the realm of constant sickness. But then there’s a recent Norwegian report that found an increase in divorces among young couples after a diagnosis of cervical or testicular cancers; other non-sexy cancers, however, didn’t not raise the risk of divorce (read the full report here - warning pdf).

What’s the take home message here? Buy some lube? Try a combo of painkillers and caffeine for love-making? Sex is the most important part of a relationship? Er, no. But intimacy IS important. So when you feel like ASS and don’t want to have sex, communicate with your partner and find comfortable ways to be close. Like eating cookies in bed and watching Battlestar Gallactica.