Fox Health: Men with spinal cord injuries become fathers thanks to rare fertility treatment at Miami clinic

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Men with spinal cord injuries become fathers thanks to rare fertility treatment at Miami clinic

A program at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis is making big moves in treating infertility in men with spinal cord injuries. Dr. Emad Ibrahim shared the rare procedures and new research....                        ...                        ...                            ...A spinal cord injury can be life-altering – and the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login is often a devastating blow as well.......Among men who experience spinal cord injuries (SCIs) in the U.S., nearly eight in 10 have fertility and reproduction issues due to erectile dysfunction or poor sperm quality.......But one clinic in Miami, Florida, is on a mission to help men with SCIs You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, part of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login Miller School of Medicine, has aided in the birth of 200 babies since the 1990s.......Fox News Digital spoke with Dr. Emad Ibrahim, director of the Male Fertility Research Program, about how "amazing" this achievement has been.......The doctor said "nothing beats the feeling" of finding out one of his patients is expecting a child.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"Every time we get an email with an ultrasound picture that shows the baby ... it's a mission accomplished," he said. "It's the most gratifying sensation you'll ever have."......Ibrahim, an associate professor of urology and neurological surgery at UMiami, said the clinical research program is "very unique" in its quest to help men father their own children through techniques rarely found elsewhere.......While men with erectile dysfunction can be given medication to address this issue, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login face a bigger challenge that the Miami clinic addresses through two unique procedures.......The two techniques include penile vibratory stimulation and electroejaculation, both FDA-approved and selected based on the nature of the spinal cord injury.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......The electroejaculation machine activates and contracts the glands responsible for producing sperm. (The machine is also available in Sweden, its only other location besides Miami.)......This method is guaranteed to be successful "almost 100% of the time," according to Ibrahim.......Men from all over the U.S., and even outside the country, have come to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login — including Darris Straughter, 44, a Miami native.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Straughter was a victim of gun violence in 2018, he told Fox News Digital in an interview.......While sitting at a traffic light, he was shot eight times. The injuries left him paralyzed from the chest down......."I don't feel anything," he said. "It's a crazy situation. You just have to roll with the punches and keep moving and try to stay positive."......Despite the incident, Straughter — who already had one child of his own — was determined to provide children for his wife.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"I kept saying, 'She deserves a kid,'" he said. "She was by my side the whole time. So, I was like, 'I'm going to try any way possible to make it happen.'"......Straughter received treatment from Ibrahim, which ultimately led to his wife's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. His daughter is now almost 2 years old and is "healthy and strong," he said......."[Fatherhood] is amazing. It's so joyful," he said. "I just love everything about it."......Fellow Florida resident Eric Rosemary, 46, also found success at the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login after a Memorial Day accident 15 years ago left him paralyzed.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"I was on a boat ... in West Palm Beach, and I fell off the boat and shattered my C4, C5, C6 vertebrae and became a quadriplegic," he said. ......Rosemary, who has been married for eight years, told Fox News Digital that he turned to the Miami Project when the timing was right to have kids.......Rosemary was previously involved in clinical trials with the project.......He and his wife have since had two sons, born in 2020 and 2023, after three attempts at the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login and two attempts with the second......."When you first get injured, there are so many other things you have to worry about," Rosemary said.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"In my 30s, I was able to cope with having a spinal cord injury, rebuilding my business, re-building my life, then getting married and having my boys," he continued. "I was fortunate enough that I had the time to do that." ......As patients who have suffered from an SCI mainly focus on mobility and medical care at first, sexual function is usually "brushed off," Ibrahim noted......."They rarely talk about fertility," he said. "And unfortunately, we still have some rehab centers in remote areas in the country that will tell these patients, 'Forget it. You're not going to have any children.'"......He added, "If [providers] knew that our program exists, and they could actually refer the patients to us, that would be of great help."......As the Miami Project's procedures have shown excellent results, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login on a potential fertility treatment is underway, Ibrahim revealed.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......The program was awarded a $3.24 million, 40-year grant in July 2023 from the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct a clinical trial to study a drug called Probenecid, which was previously used to treat gout.......Through years of research, Ibrahim and his team found that this drug targets the internal issues that some SCI patients experience, he said.......In the pilot study, which included 18 patients with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, Ibrahim reported that all participants saw improved sperm quality......."The medication is safe, and we have the publication to support that it works," he said.......The larger clinical trial is currently ongoing as the Miami Project is in search of new volunteers....

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