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Fertility and Disabilities
A Profile of Dr. Mitchell S. Tepper
By Jennifer M. Paquette
Think of male fertility problems and chances are, you'll think of sperm. But when Mitchell and Cheryl Tepper of Bridgeport, Conn. decided to have a baby seven years ago, sperm count was the least of their worries. Injured in a diving accident in 1982, Tepper was left with little sensation or motor control below the neck.
Despite grim odds, he never gave up on having children. "It was definitely a factor," he says, in getting engaged to Cheryl. "We both wanted children." He was honest with her up front. "At that time, I was going on the assumption that I had a 10 percent chance of having babies on my own." Yet, with a Ph.D. in human sexuality education, he was also in a unique position to beat those odds.
After his accident, Tepper, originally headed for Wall Street, was unsatisfied with textbook answers to sexual questions like whether he'd ever be able to attract women or father a child and whether someone with a spinal cord injury (SCI) could be a man in the fullest sense of the word.
So he went back to school, hoping to push the boundaries of disabled sexuality. He talked frankly to men and women with SCI, creating a vast storehouse of information, which eventually led him to create the SexualHealth.com Web site and to begin his public speaking career.
Along the way, Tepper learned that the 10 percent fertility statistic was more than a little out of date. Particularly within the last decade, "the odds have increased tremendously ... as the level of assisted reproductive technology has increased," he says.
Even with technology, though, the Teppers knew their chances were slim, so they were both open to adoption. Tepper believes this is crucial; at his Web site, he emphasizes realistic "expectations, an understanding of other fertility options and a discussion of your reactions if there's no pregnancy ... in reducing the potential for stress."
