Bowel and bladder management becomes a major challenge, and the most intimate of subjects, impaired sexual function, enters the objective realm of the clinical laboratory. The highest proportion of SCI happens to men in their late teens and twenties. Many women with SCI can conceive and bear children, but the situation is bleaker for men. Estimates vary, but it has been reported that while the majority of men with SCI can have an erection, less than one in ten can ejaculate during intercourse.
Fertility is especially impaired.
The failure in these cases is believed to be due to poor semen quality. The Miami Project's Male Fertility Research Program focuses on characterizing the abnormalities in semen samples from SCI men and trying to determine what may be causing poor semen quality. Nancy Brackett, Ph.D. , organized the program in 1991, and works in collaboration with Charles Lynne, M.D. , of the University of Miami Department of Urology to investigate the causes and potential treatments for infertility in SCI men. Spinal neurons controlling ejaculation are located in the lower part of the spinal cord, specifically, the thoracic, lumbar and sacral cord. Normal ejaculation involves coordinated nervous system signals travelling between the brain and the spinal cord.