Good vibes: Aids help paraplegics have sex
NEW YORK - Nearly 15 years ago David Bucks was extreme skiing in California when an avalanche knocked him down and threw him from a 200-foot cliff onto a rock face. Three of his vertebrae broke into 42 pieces. At 33, Bucks was completely paralyzed below the chest. Once he realized he'd live, he feared that he'd never be able to have sex again.
NEW YORK - Nearly 15 years ago David Bucks was extreme skiing in California when an avalanche knocked him down and threw him from a 200-foot cliff onto a rock face. Three of his vertebrae broke into 42 pieces. At 33, Bucks was completely paralyzed below the chest. Once he realized he'd live, he feared that he'd never be able to have sex again.
"One of the first questions I asked the doctor was whether I could make love again," Bucks recalled.
Some time after the injury, he started dating his nurse and they discovered FertiCare, a medical vibrator from Denmark that is marketed to men as a fertility aid.
Two months later his girlfriend was pregnant. Bucks was so enamored with the device that he began importing them to the United States. Now he turns a nice profit selling about 50 vibrators a month for $695 each.
Most people with spinal cord injuries rank improving sexual function as more important than walking, according to a 2006 study published in the medical journal Spinal Cord. With more robust public discussion of erectile dysfunction, thanks to the advent of Viagra, the 250,000 Americans with spinal cord injuries are increasingly sampling products ranging from the blue pills to special sex chairs.
"Things have really picked up," said Dr. Stacy Elliott, a sex specialist for the disabled. "Our medicines are much better and there are more products and sexual aids available."
There are products like the FertiCare, which is seven times more powerful than a regular vibrator and requires a doctor's prescription. The FertiCare stimulates penile muscles to induce ejaculation. This reaction is similar to when a doctor hits a patient's knee with a rubber hammer and the leg jumps up, Bucks said.
Most sex products for the disabled have been geared toward men, but a vibrator especially designed for paraplegic women is due to hit the market within a year.
The Dutch company Chique Erotique markets the Dream Love Chair for paraplegics; it is an elaborate apparatus with two adjustable and opposing seats. And there is the Eros Clitoral Therapy Device, which stimulates blood flow in women with sexual dysfunction. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved the apparatus, which also requires a prescription. *