Physiologic Effects of SCI on Female Sexual Response

The goal of this study is to understand how spinal cord injuries at the level of T6 and below affect female sexual response. An additional 30 women with SCI's are needed to participate in this three day laboratory-based study which is conducted at Kessler Institute in West Orange, New Jersey. Subjects must be premenopausal and free from major medical or psychiatric illness. A physical examination, neurologic testing and six separate studies are conducted over the three-day period. Three studies are designed to evaluate the impact of SCI on sexual responsiveness and an additional three studies are designed to improve sexual responsiveness. The psychogenic stimulation protocol and reflex protocol are designed to measure women's responses to audiovisual and manual sexual stimulation and the orgasm protocol is designed to study the characteristics of orgasm after SCI. The sympathetic stimulation, vibration and feedback protocols are designed to study the impact of various interventions in improving female sexual responsiveness. Heart rate, blood pressure, vaginal blood flow, breathing rate and subjective level of arousal are monitored during the study. Recruitment Information: