The Treatment of Male Subfertility with Acupuncture

Male subfertility may be a factor in at least half of all couple infertility, yet apart from assisted reproduction technology (ART), biomedical treatment options are limited. There is growing evidence that acupuncture can improve sperm parameters and may therefore play a role in improving male fertility. This article offers a broad introduction to the subject and covers environmental and lifestyle factors that contribute to generalised and individual male subfertility, gives the basic biomedical information that a practitioner needs to know, and discusses the Chinese medicine theory and differentiation, and the acupuncture treatment, of male subfertility. Finally a small number of research papers are discussed.