[Sexuality of men with neurologic disorders]

Neurological disorders affecting the brain, the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system are frequently responsible for sexual disorders. Their impact can be major and could rank first in the concerns of patients with neurological handicap, particularly those who are paraplegic.

Medical literature was reviewed and combined with expert opinion of the authors.

Sexual dysfunction can vary depending on the site of the lesion, its complete or incompleteness for the spinal cord, its natural history, the age of onset. Value of the data present in the literature varies depending on the pathology. Many neurological patients are on medication and an iatrogenic factor is not to be excluded when managing and understanding the physiopathology of sexual dysfunction. Clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of pharmacological treatments are often specific to one pathology. This means that extrapolating to other neurological disorders is difficult and could even be dangerous in the presence of orthostatic hypotension. Due to the vicinity of the spinal centers controlling bladder, sphincteric, anorectal and sexual functions the symptomatology is often mixed associating urinary, sexual and fecal disorders. The treatment of urinary incontinence and management of anorectal disorders should precede the treatment for sexual complaints. The existence of a sexual disorder can be of great help in the neurological diagnosis in certain contexts (extrapyramidal syndromes). We report the data from the literature concerning male sexual disorders in cases of acquired brain lesions (stroke, cranial trauma), extrapyramidal symptoms, medullar lesions, multiple sclerosis, peripheral lesions of the cauda equina or more distal.

Sexual dysfunction must be part of the overall management of neurological patients.