What Are the Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes?

Health Line

11-07-2025

Key takeaways
Type 2 diabetes can cause increased thirst and frequent urination. The kidneys can't process excess glucose, so the body tries to replace lost fluids.
The condition may lead to nerve damage, especially in the hands and feet, causing tingling, numbness, and pain due to an insufficient oxygen and nutrient supply to the nerves.
Difficulties with sexual health, such as decreased sex drive, erectile dysfunction in males, and more frequent and severe urinary and vaginal infections, can occur.
Learning to identify early and ongoing symptoms of type 2 diabetes can help you prevent complications.
The following symptoms may vary in intensity and presentation from person to person. They may also develop slowly over many years and may be so mild that some people might not notice them at first.
Frequent urination
Polyuria, or excessive urination, is one of the 3 P's of diabetes.
Your kidneys eventually can't keep up with the extra glucose in your bloodstream. Some of the glucose ends up in your urine, drawing in more water, resulting in an increased need to urinate very often.
Adults typically produce 1 to 2 liters of urine per day (a liter is about a quart). Polyuria is defined as producing more than 3 liters of urine per day.
Extreme thirst
Excessive thirst, or polydipsia, is often a result of frequent urination. Your body urges you to replace lost fluids by making you feel thirsty more often.
Diabetes-related thirst is uncharacteristic and persistent and not related to temperature or level of activity. You also feel thirsty even after drinking fluids.
Increased hunger
Excessive hunger is called polyphagia.
If you have type 2 diabetes, your body has a hard time turning glucose into energy. This signals to your brain that you need more fuel, which makes you feel hungry.
Eating may introduce even more sugar to your bloodstream, which can't be processed. That is why eating when you have diabetes does not necessarily alleviate the hunger.
Tingling, numbness, and pain in the hands and feet
High glucose can damage the blood vessels that supply nutrients to your nerves. When your nerves don't receive enough oxygen and nutrients, they cannot function properly.
This leads to diabetic neuropathy, which is a painful complication of diabetes, most common in your extremities.
Blurry vision
Diabetes increases the chance of developing several eye conditions, including:
diabetic retinopathy
cataracts
open-angle glaucoma
Damaged blood vessels in the eye often lead to blurry vision and other problems if not managed in time.
Fatigue
Fatigue can refer to mental or physical tiredness, or both, that doesn't improve with rest. Many causes of fatigue exist, and diabetes may be one of them.
You may feel drained or not able to focus. You could also notice that usual activities now take more effort or tire you quicker than before.
Slow-healing wounds
If you have type 2 diabetes, regular cuts and scratches may take longer to heal.
Wounds like skin ulcers may develop on your feet and can be easy to overlook, leading to complications.
Slow-healing diabetic foot ulcers occur due to poor blood supply and damage to the nerves responsible for blood flow to the feet.
A 2020 study showed that in people with diabetes, foot ulcers don't mobilize the immune cells needed for proper cell repair and inflammation relief, leading to slowed healing.
Unexplained weight loss
Insulin resistance causes glucose to build up in the bloodstream instead of being turned into energy. This can cause your body to use other energy sources, like muscle or fat tissue.
Your weight might naturally fluctuate a little. But an unexplained loss of at least 5% of your body weight is generally a sign that you may need to talk with a healthcare professional.
Frequent infections
In addition to nerve damage and a weakened immune system, diabetes also challenges blood circulation, which increases the chance of developing infections. High levels of glucose in the blood and tissues may allow infections to spread faster.
People with diabetes commonly develop infections of the:
ear, nose, and throat
kidney
bladder
feet
Changes in the skin
Acanthosis nigricans is a skin condition that can be a symptom of diabetes. It appears as dark bands of skin that may have a velvety texture. In dark skin tones, it may look like discolored patches or areas of the skin that look different.
This symptom of diabetes is most common in body folds such as armpits, neck, and groin, but may occur anywhere in the body.
Diabetes may develop over a long time. Find out more about pre-diabetes, including symptoms, causes, and diabetes prevention.
Symptoms of type 2 diabetes in men
While the symptoms above can develop in anyone with type 2 diabetes, the following symptoms are specific to men, or individuals who are assigned male at birth:
Men with diabetes may have lower levels of testosterone, which is linked to a decreased sex drive.
A review of research published in 2017 found that more than half of men with diabetes are affected by ED.
Some men may experience retrograde ejaculation as a symptom of diabetes, according to research.
The lower testosterone levels observed in men with diabetes may also contribute to reduced muscle mass.
Symptoms of type 2 diabetes in women
Type 2 diabetes also may present with symptoms specific to women:
Urinary tract infections may be more common and severe in those with type 2 diabetes compared to women without the condition.
Elevated glucose levels allow yeast organisms to grow more easily, leading to a higher chance of vaginal infections.
Type 2 diabetes does not specifically make it more difficult to conceive, but polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can. Developing PCOS has been linked to insulin resistance, and PCOS has been shown to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Takeaway
Symptoms of diabetes can be subtle and develop over a long time. These may include feeling more thirsty and hungry than usual, experiencing prolonged fatigue, having wounds that take long to heal, losing weight without a clear reason, and developing vision changes.