mild spinal cord injury. Medications Tricyclic antidepressants like imipramine. Antihistamines like chlorphenamine. Decongestants like ephedrine and phenylephrine. These medications tighten the bladder neck muscles and prevent semen from going backwards into the bladder. However, the medications do have many side effects and they have to be taken at least 1–2 hours prior to sexual intercourse. In many cases, the medications fail to work at the right time because most men are not able to predict when they will have an orgasm. Infertility treatments If a couple is experiencing infertility as a result of retrograde ejaculation and medications are not helping, the collection of the semen collection may undergo a special procedure. First, the patient alkalinizes his urine by intake of sodium bicarbonate (3g dissolved in water in the evening before bed, and then another dose after complete bladder emptying right before going to the laboratory). Before semen collection the patient must empty his bladder. The patient then has to masturbate in one container and immediately after has to urinate in another container. The male's ejaculate may be centrifuged from urine voided, and the isolated sperm injected directly into the woman through the use of intrauterine insemination. In more severe cases, in-vitro fertilization with intracytoplasmic sperm injection may be used. Intentional induction Retrograde ejaculation can be deliberately induced by squeezing the urethra at the base or applying pressure to the perineum during orgasm. The retrograde-ejaculated sperm goes into the bladder and is excreted with the next urination. Contraception In certain cultures, such as in the Oneida Community, retrograde ejaculation is performed as a form of primitive male birth control (coitus saxonicus). However, the practice is not considered a reliable method compared to most modern types of birth control. Besides the lack of protection from STDs, the technique itself can be hard to execute correctly during the act of coitus, especially if the male does not fully understand the anatomy involved. Many doctors also do not recommend coitus saxonicus due to the risk of putting pressure on the pudendal nerve, which can cause numbness in the penis. Taoism Taoists and some fields of alternative medicine recommend and teach deliberate retrograde ejaculation as a way of "conserving the body's energy". It was believed that retrograde ejaculation caused the sperm to travel into the head and nourish the brain, or that energy is conserved physically by keeping the sperm (and thereby, the "intelligence" that