Retraining for paraplegics

[pear]

Hello,
I've read some years ago, that it is possible for people who became paralyzed from the waist down (paraplegic) and loose sensitivity even in the genital area, to "retrain" some other part of their body to work as their "most sensitive spot" and become able to reach orgasm using that new spot again. The "retraining" could take several years. Do you think this is possible?
Thanks,
-pear

[Karyn]

It looks like there have been a few studies done on this, and it is possible for at least some people with a spinal cord injury. Orgasm happens primarily in the brain and nervous system, so it isn't too surprising that people can retrain their bodies and brains this way. (It doesn't seem to be too clear how it happens, but there is a LOT that we still don't know about how the brain and nervous system work!)

[pear]

Do you have links to those studies, in case they are publicly available? I'd like to see how it was done. Thank you!

[Heather]

Setting aside links to studies when Karyn is back, chances are it has a lot to do with just teaching people to think differently.

In other words, most people learn -- socially and culturally -- that their "sexual parts" are all below the belt, when in reality, for everyone, function of their genitals or no, as Karyn pointed out, sexual response occurs primarily in the brain and central nervous system, and feasibly any or even every part of the body can be a "sexual part." As well, some other parts of the body even have more sensory nerve endings than the genitals do overall, like the mouth, feet and hands (small wonder so many people enjoy oral and manual sex as the "givers!").

For people -- again, any people -- to learn to expand their sexual response to more of the body than just the genitals is something anyone can be capable of doing, and some people come to sex with a more expansive sense like this right from the start, especially if they don't get in a habit of only or mostly focusing on the genitals in order to explore and express their sexualities.

[pear]

Thank you for your answer. I can understand what you are saying. For example, the spaces between my fingers became like the space between my legs. When a man I like touches me between my fingers (and IV/V finger especially), I crawl up the wall. I can also get lots of satisfaction and that warm, cozy feeling when he explores my earlobe, and then finally sticks his finger into my ear. It's all nice... but still very far from orgasm, despite being very sexual.

[Heather]

The interesting thing about orgasm is that it truly is almost entirely about the brain and central nervous system. We often feel some effects from it genitally, and again, many people only learn to get there genitally, but that's less about physiology and more about the way we think and learn to be sexual.

And for sure, the webbing between fingers is packed with nerve endings (thus why it also can hurt so bad to have a cut there), and ears are another part of the body very rich with nerve endings!

I'd add to this that all of this can be something that can have hidden benefits for sexual partners of people with disabilities that impact their genitals, but who learn (or already knew how) to be sexually responsive with other parts: it can be a great way for people without those kinds of disabilities to learn how to expand their own sexualities!

[Karyn]

Hey, pear. I've got a few links to studies, but I haven't found anything that states specifically how retraining your brain is done. (Most of them are also behind paywalls so that only the abstracts of the articles are available.) Happy to link them if you like, just wanted to check if that's still something you were interested in.

I'd also agree with Heather that since orgasm really does happen primarily in the brain, it's worth taking some time to explore the various parts of your body that you find are sensitive, and that's likely to be the basis of what that retraining your brain would be about. Ideally, you want to make it about the exploration, not the goal (and without the expectation that orgasm will necessarily feel similar to what you may have experienced previously) because focusing on a goal like that can actually make it a lot more difficult to enjoy what's happening in the moment and actually makes it less likely for it to happen for anyone.

[pear]

Hi Karyn, please post the links, my academic access might be still functional, so the paywalls might not be a problem.