New Hope for Paralyzed Men Who Wish to Father Children

Men who are paralyzed from the waist down are limited when it comes to having a normal sex life and fathering children. However, new low-tech techniques are offering new hope for paralyzed men wishing to conceive children naturally. According to an MSNBC article, doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago state that most men with spinal cord injuries can father children. Unfortunately, many of the less invasive, less expensive techniques aren't presented to the very men they would benefit.

Some fertility doctors simply do not present paralyzed men with all of their options. "Instead some fertility doctors jump immediately to expensive, invasive procedures, such as surgically extracting sperm from the testes, when confronted by a man in a wheelchair." (MSNBC) According to Geoff Luther, a young man affected by paralysis, whose story, and that of his family, MSNBC detailed in a news story, it takes the best fertility and financial resources in order to discover the most effective techniques in achieving fertility in men with paralysis. "What helped in Geoff's case was a device that triggers ejaculation with a low-voltage impulse of electricity, a procedure borrowed from animal husbandry and developed for use in humans by Dr. Carol J. Bennett and her colleagues at the University of Michigan's urology department." (MSNBC) As a result of the procedure, Geoff and his wife Tammy were able to start a family. They now have a son Trent (6) and a daughter named Kayla (3).

Cases like that of the Luther family raises the question of standard treatment for male paralysis patients and their families. Researchers such as Nancy Brackett at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis simply want doctors to try less invasive and inexpensive procedures before subjecting their patients to treatments that are riskier. Bracket "surveyed more than 100 fertility centers and discovered that 28 percent don't offer two simple techniques that rehab experts have used successfully for years and that work for 95 percent of paraplegic and quadriplegic men. Brackett published her findings in the October issue of Fertility and Sterility." (MSNBC) The journal is widely read by infertility specialist and Brackett has now taken on the cause of male infertility due to paralysis as her own.

Another issue discussed by the University of Michigan urology website is communication between specialists in female infertility and specialists treating male infertility issues due to paralysis. There may be more than one cause of the infertility that the couple is experiencing, and specialists in both cases need to fully comprehend the entire picture of the couple's situation.

Sources: MSNBC; Department of Urology, University of Michigan