Do you know that men suffer from infertility as frequently
as women? In fact approximately 35% of infertility problems among couples are
actually caused by male conditions. It is believed that changes in sperm structure
and quality (e.g. reduced sperm mobility, abnormal sperm shape and size and low
sperm count), genetics and physiological changes are responsible for male infertility.
Other factors such as life style and stress can also have impact on the fertility
and addressing these problems may have a significant positive effect.
Acupuncture is used to improve men infertility. Many clinical
studies reported that acupuncture may improve sperm motility, count and
quality, and may have a beneficial effect on psychogenic erectile dysfunction. In
particular one study, using transmission electron microscopy, analysed sperm ultrastructural
changes in men after acupuncture treatment. The authors found that the number
and percentage of healthy sperm increased dramatically and sperm structure and
quality were significantly improved following acupuncture treatment. For example,
prior to acupuncture, only 22.5% of the sperm samples in the patients contained
normal-shaped acrosomes, a cap-like structure that develops over the anterior
portion of a sperm cell's nucleus, important to facilitate fertility. After acupuncture,
the median percentage of normal acrosome shapes showed a statistically
significant improvement up to 38.5%.
The authors concluded that male infertility could benefit
from acupuncture based on improvement of sperm quality, specifically in the ultrastructural
integrity of spermatozoa after the treatment.
Reference:
Pei J et al., Quantitative evaluation of
spermatozoa ultrastructure after acupuncture treatment for idiopathic male
infertility. Fertil Steril. 2005 Jul; 84(1):141-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16009169
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