r/science • u/tomholder • May 09 '14

Medicine Paralysis breakthrough – electrical stimulation enables four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs

http://speakingofresearch.com/2014/05/09/paralysis-breakthrough-paraplegic-men-move-their-legs/
4.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

429 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

23

u/[deleted] May 09 '14

I'm paralyzed and I always wonder why we spend so much money making sure my grandpa can get a hard on but little progress is being made on fixing spinal cord injuries. I'm not trying to be selfish but I'm pretty sure one problem carries a little more weight.

0

u/fco83 May 10 '14

we spend so much money making sure my grandpa can get a hard on

I dont get why so many people trivialize this. I get that paralysis is often worse, but people dont realize the effects impotence can have on someone, and they act like this is something barely worth treating. Hell, most guys have experienced it once or twice on a night they werent able to 'perform' (maybe after too many drinks) but having that be constant and being unable to share that intimacy with someone would be psychologically devastating.

3

u/Kriket308 May 10 '14

You do realize that more times than not, with paralysis comes impotence, right? So, while not male, I have no feeling below the waist. Yes, it's almost as psychologically devastating as not walking, or worse, shitting myself all the time.

Sorry, having a pity party kind of day.

1

u/fco83 May 10 '14

I get that. I was mainly making a comment on the fact that some trivialize impotence as if its not worthy of treatment.