VANCOUVER, BC — Those with full use of their limbs and genitals may demean the importance of enjoying the latter, but those who find themselves limited by spinal cord injuries consistently report a strong desire to regain sexual function.More than 36,000 Canadians live with spinal cord injuries and another 1,100 citizens join that number each year. According to a study conducted by Kim Anderson of the Reeve-Irvine Center at the University of California, Irvine, sexual health is one of the most important things in a paralyzed adult’s recovery program.

Anderson’s survey revealed that those with lower body paralysis (paraplegia) listed regaining sexual function as their first priority and those with limited or no use of their arms and legs (quadriplegia) ranked it as their second, following restored use of hands and arms.

Researchers from International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) think they may have a solution.

The group of spinal cord injury researchers is based out of the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Its members have worked together on highly specialized vibrators designed to help put disabled men and women with spinal cord injuries back in touch with some of the more pleasurable parts of their bodies — and their lives.

“Sexual health is just as important an issue for people with spinal cord injuries as it is with anyone else,” Stephanie Cadieux of the BC Paraplegics Association explains.

Fortunately for this goal, most paralyzed people do not lose all sensation below the area of spinal injury. The hyper powered vibrators under development aim to take advantage of that fact, maximizing whatever sensation is left by exciting pelvic responses at the very spinal level.

The research phase of this study is expected end within six to eight months.