Sexual health and spinal cord injury
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Your reproductive system - the facts
Male and female reproductive systems are very different in structure, but certain features are common to both systems.
Common features are as follows:
- Gonads. These are testes in the male which produce sperm; and ovaries in the female which produce ova (eggs), as well as sex hormones
- Ducts. These store and transport the ova and sperm
- Sex glands. These produce substances that protect and move the ova and sperm through the ducts
- Supporting structures. Such as the penis, vas deferens and vagina
Both male and female reproductive systems are controlled by two systems:
- nervous system (controls the smooth muscle in your reproductive ducts, causing them to contract, moving the ova and sperm along these ducts)
- endocrine, or hormonal, system (stimulates the testes to produce sperm and the hormone testosterone; and the ovaries to produce the ova, and the hormones oestrogen and progesterone)
Changes in sexual function
Changes in sexual function can be caused by injury or disease in your nervous system. This may happen because of:
- brain trauma
- spinal cord injury
- spinal cord disease
- damage to the nerves leading to and from your bladder
Depending on the level and type of your spinal cord damage, your sexual function can be one of two types:
- reflex or upper motor neuron sexual function (UMN)
- flaccid or lower motor neuron sexual function (LMN)
