After a spinal cord injury, can you still have children?

The spine is a very important part of the human body. Besides functioning to support one's posture, the spine also has a collection of central nerve fibers, one of which plays a major role in regulating the reproductive system.

Although vital, it turns out that this section is often injured or traumatized. Statistics show that injuries to the spine affect a lot of men, especially in the reproductive age range. The most common causes include traffic accidents and falls from a height.

So what if a man of childbearing age has a spinal cord injury? Does he still have a chance to have children? Or has this injury rendered her infertile? Find out in the following reviews.

Parts of the nerves in the spine

Before understanding the impact of spinal cord injury on male fertility, first know the function of your spine. The human spine contains an extension of the central nervous system called the spinal cord. This collection of nerve fibers has various functions depending on their location in the vertebrae. There are three main functions, namely:

1. Sensory function

Along the back of the spinal cord, there is a collection of nerve fibers that are useful for receiving certain stimuli such as changes in temperature, pain, and others. These stimuli will be delivered upward to the brain so that they can be translated and responded to.

2. Motor function

This function is located in the anterior part of the spinal cord. Orders from the brain to move certain parts of the body will be conveyed through this series of nerve fibers.

3. Autonomous function

Autonomous function is useful for controlling various conditions in the body automatically and does not depend on someone's conscious orders. The urge to urinate and defecate is an example of autonomic function.

How does spinal cord injury affect male fertility?

Even though the case is different for each spinal cord injury, it is possible for men to be infertile. A man's infertility after suffering from a spinal cord injury is a combination of several functional disorders that should occur during sexual intercourse. The following is a collection of impaired functions that can make it difficult for men to have children after suffering from a spinal cord injury.

1. Erectile function

When receiving a stimulation, the body will automatically increase blood flow to the shaft of the penis and hold back flow from that location to the heart. As a result, the penis becomes tense and ready to ejaculate. This mechanism is regulated by nerves in the spine that are located about the level of the lower back.

Injury to the spine may damage the nerves that regulate this mechanism. As a result, you have difficulty achieving an erection (impotence) so that it is more difficult to conceive.

2. Ejaculation function

The occurrence of the ejaculation process is a combination input from physical and psychological stimulation. Physically, ejaculation is regulated by the nerve segments that are around a person's lower back. Injury to this segment results in disruption of a man's ejaculation process. Without ejaculation, a man cannot fertilize a woman's egg.

3. Decreased sperm quality

Trauma to the spine also has a direct impact on the production of seminal fluid and the sperm cells contained in it. This can make it difficult for men to have children, or it can increase the risk of congenital abnormalities in the baby that the wife will carry.

4. Disruption of reproductive hormone regulation

Several studies have shown that disorders of the spinal cord can affect the normal state of various human reproductive hormones. This will disrupt the process of production and maturation of sperm cells.

5. The temperature rise in the testes

The direct result of a spinal cord injury is weakness of the leg muscles, which can cause you to sit a lot more. This phenomenon can have an impact on increasing the temperature around the testicles. In fact, the testes need a temperature of 3-4 degrees Celsius lower than body temperature in order to produce sperm optimally.

6. Accessory gland disorders

In the male reproductive system, there are several additional glands that function to support sperm, for example the prostate gland. In men with spinal cord injury, prostate dysfunction was also found so that the seminal fluid produced was of poor quality.

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