BODY WATCH : New Life for Old Technique : Medicine: A procedure used since the 1940s to preserve endangered species is now helping men with spinal cord injuries who want children.
When Michael Schneider became paralyzed after a car accident in 1987, his doctors told him he would never have children.
The neurological damage to Schneider, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair, left him with poor muscle function, which impairs his ability to ejaculate. He is among the estimated 90% of the 150,000 spinal cord injured Americans incapable of conceiving.
Nevertheless, he and his wife, Laura, whom he married in 1992, never stopped longing for a child, even though until recently there was little reason for hope.
But Wednesday marks the two-month birthday of Thomas Michael Schneider, a biological son weighing 7 1/2 pounds and measuring 20 inches. His conception was the result of a technique, used commonly since the 1940s in animal husbandry, that in the last decade has transposed successfully into humans.
Their son was conceived through a special procedure known as electro-ejaculation. First employed successfully in 1986 at the University of Michigan, the procedure is seeing more widespread use. The Schneiders were treated through the fertility program at the National Rehabilitation Hospital here.
The technique involves the insertion of a specially designed probe into the rectum, which men with spinal cord injuries do not feel. The probe then delivers a mild electrical current to damaged nerves in the area of the prostate gland.
In uninjured men, such stimulation typically originates in the brain. But men whose spinal cord nerves are impaired are unable to transmit such signals. When the procedure works, the electrical impulse triggers an erection and ejaculation of semen within several minutes.
Experts caution that the procedure does not work in every patient, some of whom have other fertility problems, such as weak sperm. But if sperm of good quality can be retrieved, it can either be used for artificial insemination or, if there are additional fertility problems, mixed with the woman’s eggs in a petri dish and then implanted in the uterus.
In a sense, electro-ejaculation adds a step to an already complicated and risky in vitro fertilization process, which involves transferring embryos created in the laboratory into the woman. Even with strong sperm, this procedure fails more often than it succeeds.
“It took six attempts and was very emotionally draining,” says Laura Schneider. “Yet, I would go through this again in a heartbeat.”
Laura Schneider became pregnant through the procedure on Valentine’s Day, 1994. She remembers the moment the couple received the call from the hospital announcing that the procedure finally had worked.
“They told us they’d call us first thing in the morning with the test results, and they didn’t--so we spent the morning crying,” she recalls. “The phone rang in the afternoon, and we heard, ‘Hey, you guys are going to be parents,’ and we cried again.”
Dr. Lauro Halstead, director of the Washington hospital’s fertility program, says the techniques were originally developed to preserve endangered species in the animal kingdom. They are used to bolster gorilla, giant panda and other animal populations by obtaining sperm for artificial insemination.
In 1983, Halstead began one of the first fertility clinics in Texas for humans using these techniques. Since 1986, there have been several dozen pregnancies resulting from the procedure.
“There are lots of couples throughout America in which the husband has a spinal cord injury, but they would love to have their own children,” says Michael Schneider, 29. “Because of this program . . . the good fortune Laura and I have had is possible for them, too.”
Laura Schneider, 28, a pharmacist, agrees. “The baby is so good--he cries only when he’s hungry or wet. He’s so alert. He just loves to look at his hands and look all around. And my husband just loves to hold him and look at him.”
She pauses. “There’s no doubt we’ll do it again,” she says.
