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Electro-ejaculation is commonly used in veterinary medicine, a quick and reliable method of collecting semen from bulls, rams, and bucks. It involves the insertion of a probe into the animal’s rectum and the application of electrical pulses to stimulate the pelvic nerves and induce ejaculation. Aside from its utility in facilitating reproduction in cattle and other animals, electro-ejaculation has proven to be extremely useful in human males who desire to reproduce but cannot ejaculate.
There are almost 20,000 cases of spinal cord injury annually in the USA, often occurring from athletic pursuits. Most men with spinal cord injuries are in their prime of life in their child-bearing years. Depending upon the level and extent of spinal cord injury, it is likely that the ability to ejaculate is compromised. Inability to ejaculate occurs in 90% or so of the spinal cord injured male population. Special techniques are thus required to enable producing a semen specimen to enable fathering children. The two main options are penile vibratory stimulation and electro-ejaculation.
When a vibrator is applied to the head of the penis of a spinal cord injury patient, it initiates a reflex erection and subsequently ejaculation and has thus become an accepted means of collecting semen to use to perform insemination. (It will also do the same for men without spinal cord injuries.)
Electro-ejaculation is an effective technique used to trigger ejaculation in men with spinal cord injuries who are not capable of doing so with penile vibratory stimulation. A special electric probe that delivers DC current is placed in the rectum in contact with the prostate gland. Electrical impulses are generated and cycled by leaving the current on for a few seconds and then turning it off for a few seconds. The voltage is gradually increased and as the current is applied the pelvic floor tightens and the probe is pulled inwards. As the current is further increased, thigh abduction, back arching, and ultimately ejaculation occurs. Ejaculation usually happens at a point in the cycle when the current is off. Ejaculation is most often a dribbling quality, and the urethra needs to be milked to obtain the semen. Electro-ejaculation often results in retrograde ejaculation (“in-jaculation”) with the semen ejaculated into the urinary bladder. Under this circumstance, the bladder needs to be drained via a catheter and irrigated and this fluid is centrifuged down to a sperm pellet that can be used for assisted reproduction.
The success rate of electro-ejaculation is 95% without anesthesia and 100% when general anesthesia is used. IVF (in vitro fertilization) or ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) after electro-ejaculation results in a 50% pregnancy rate and a 44% live birth rate per couple.
In this video, two masters of the technique, Drs. Nancy Brackett and Dr. Charles Lynne, demonstrate the technique of electroejaculation.
