“We don’t have enough people focused on studying ways to solve problems like sexual function and bowel and bladder control,” said Kim Anderson-Erisman, who conducted the survey, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Anderson-Erisman, the director of education at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, has used a wheelchair since she was in a car accident at age 17.

“Not being able to walk is the easy part,” she said. “When you can’t control your bladder or your bowels, that’s big, big, big, and we’re still way behind on research for those things.”

Slowly, the research is changing. The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, for example, is looking for more ways to advance research for the “secondary conditions” of paralysis.