Dr. Christine Cui 2015-Nov-16

Male Fertility

Acupuncture in male fertility may increase the sperms count as well as may improve the quality of the sperms (motility, numbers and shape). Over the past decade, male infertility has been known to be responsible for a couple with difficulty in conceiving. According to the study, there was 87% of sperms were rejected from the sperm bank, meaning only 13% accepted due to low quality of sperms. (Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

The way acupuncture may assist couples in conceiving include the following:

• May promote blood flow
Just the same as women, acupuncture may increase blood flow in the pelvic region; it may also promote the circulation of blood to reproductive organs in men. As a result, it may increase oxygen and nutrients through the whole body for reproduction cell improvement.

• Diminish stress level

Acupuncture may reduce men stress level by stimulating part of the body that is affected. This includes balancing neurons cells in the brain as well as reproductive organs.

• May develop the Endocrine System Function
Endocrine system produce secrete hormones that regulate primary functions in the body; which also include reproductive organs. These hormones then promote the body’s growth, metabolism and sexual development and function.

A professional acupuncturist can stimulate the correct meridians in the body to boost endocrine function, it may improve overall well-being and increase the chance conceiving.

Other relevant factor

The other factor can also impact male’s infertility is the age factor, not many people aware that men over 40 can have an impact to difficulty in conceiving.  However, sperm quality may improve with regular consumption of Chinese herbal medicine.

Secondly, it is also recommended that both couples have regular acupuncture therapy, it may boost the chances of conceiving.

Evidence

According to the research of Quantitative evaluation of spermatozoa ultrastructure after acupuncture treatment for idiopathic male infertility, proved that the quality of the sperms has significantly increased after acupuncture treatment. The result also shown that there is a significant improvement in acrosome position and shape, nuclear shape, axonemal pattern and shape and accessory fibres of sperm organelles (source: “Fertility and Sterility” by Pei J et al Fertil Steril. 2005 Jul;84(1):141-7).

There is further evidence proven from Archives of Andrology by Siterman S et al Arch Androl. 1997 Sep-Oct;39(2):155-61; which also shown that infertile men with abnormal semen analysis can benefit from acupuncture due to improvement in total functional sperm fraction, percentage of viability and motility of sperms after receiving acupuncture treatments.

In both cases, the group of men researched were doing two times a week of acupuncture treatments for five weeks period. Therefore, it is recommended that infertile men should do acupuncture at least two times a week in order to have an effective result.