Sex & Disability

Posted: August 22, 2011 06:00AM
Under: Health
By: Alison Bailin Batz

You heard it here first, people with a physical disability can and often do lead healthy, active sex lives. How you ask? With the largest, most powerful sex organ both men and women share. Your largest sex organ is revealed.

Sex & Disability
Your Largest Sex Organ Revealed

You heard it here first, people with a physical disability can and often do lead healthy, active sex lives. How you ask? With the largest, most powerful sex organ both men and women share. The brain. “When I was 18 years old, if you would have tried to tell me that, I would have laughed in your face,” says Arizona resident Don Price.

Just days after graduating high school back in the 80s, Price was swimming with friends in his hometown of West Band, Wisconsin and dove head-first into a small, shallow lake. The dive resulted in a spinal cord injury, leaving him paralyzed. Today, he is quadriplegic and uses a wheelchair—and his brain. And yes, he has sexual intercourse.

“People often mistakenly think that an injury like mine means a person becomes a-sexual or non-sexual, which simply isn’t true,” says Price, who currently works as an early intervention coordinator at Arizona Bridge to Independent Living (ABIL). He's also active with its men’s disability issues group, where sexuality is always a popular topic.

According to Price, who regularly meets with returning combat soldiers and folks involved in accidents involving spinal cord damage, sex, intercourse and intimacy are among the first questions he is asked when meeting with newly injured people. With men, he says, he always makes it clear that having a disability does not have to impair one’s sex life—but it does redefine it.

“Men get aroused—meaning erections—in two basic ways,” says Sonya Perduta-Fulginiti, Spinal Cord Injury Wellness Program coordinator at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “There is the arousal that comes from being physically touched, and there is the arousal based on erotic thoughts.”

In general, she says, people without any neurological injuries, such as paraplegia, quadriplegia or multiple sclerosis can get aroused based on both factors. But, according to Perduta-Fulginiti, varying levels of disability may alter one’s ability to feel someone's touch, one’s ability to move body parts and/or one’s ability to transmit signals to the genitals.

“Following disability, the first key to re-igniting sexuality is self-exploration,” says Perduta-Fulginiti. “When I provide education on the topic, I actually give this as a homework assignment,” she adds. “One needs to know where and how to be aroused, disability or not, to fully enjoy sex.” She also says, communicating this to your partner can even help heighten the experience for both individuals.

The second key involves using the biggest sex organ—the brain. Perduta-Fulginiti says effective communication with your partner can help your sexual needs by promoting a meaningful relationship.

“Sounds simple enough, right?” says Price. “Hardly! We men tend to be a bit lacking in the communication department. “And while women are far superior at expressing emotions,” he adds, “it isn’t always so easy for them to talk in specifics about sex, even with their partners.”

That's why Perduta-Fulginiti makes the following recommendations to her newly injured patients, or those suffering with a physical disability.

Sex & Disability Recommendations:

Identification of erotic sensory abilities – What parts of your body other than your genitals feel good to what types of touches?

Sexual positioning options – What is still comfortable and how acrobatic can you still be?

Sexual location options – What still works? Bed, wheelchair, couch, back seat of the car?

Maintain vaginal lubrication – Keep water soluble products handy just in case

Achieving/maintaining erection – Is medication something to consider?

Ejaculation – Is it happening, does it need to and should you see a doctor?

Achieving orgasm – Learn where and how you and your brain can make it happen?

Alison Bailin Batz is a freelance writer in Phoenix as well as a senior account executive at HMA Public Relations.

Alison Bailin is a public relations expert, public speaker, blogger and creative writer. As an HMA Public Relations senior account executive, Bailin has participated on award-winning accounts in the restaurant, real estate, retail, non-profit, professional services, governmental and healthcare fields. Bailin is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and is on the board of governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Rocky Mountain Chapter (NATAS) and helps plan the local Emmy Awards. Bailin has been with HMA Public Relations since 2004.