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Spinal cord injury is chiefly defined as the injury to the spinal cord of the body and can result from motor accidents, diving accidents, falls, and gunshots and also when a person suffers from a whole array of disorders like polio, Friedreich's ataxia , spina bifida and tumours.
There are two types of spinal cord injuries; namely, complete and incomplete injuries. In case of complete spinal cord injuries, the patient has considerably more chances of falling prey to erectile dysfunction, a disorder that makes the victim unable to set off erections required for satisfactory sexual intercourse. Before delving deep into the interrelationship between spinal cord injury and erectile dysfunction it is more prominent to have a first hand account of the erections that the penis triggers off once it becomes crammed with blood.
Erections set off by the penis are identified as psychogenic and reflex erections with different factors responsible for the occurrence of each type of erection. Psychogenic erections occur as a result of hearing or seeing something stimulating or sexual and when it happens the brain conveys the feeling of sexual arousal through the nerves of the spinal cord and the message is forwarded to the penis leading to the formation of erections. In complete contrast with psychogenic erections, reflex erection is the result of physical contact at the penis, nipples, ears, neck and other erotic places of the body.
Complete spinal cord Injury ruins a person completely.Voluntary movement as well as physical sensation becomes impossible after a person suffers from complete spinal cord injury as this specific type of spinal cord injury equally affects both parts of the body. But in the case of incomplete spinal cord injury, the person affected may be able to move one or other limbs and is also not completely devoid of sensation.
The nerves responsible for erections are present in the specific parts (S/2-S/4) of the spine and as such the injury above these parts result in erectile dysfunction. Along with making the sufferer a victim of erectile dysfucntion, Spinal Cord Injury may also induce changes in his relationships and his feelings and concerns about his own sexuality.
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