Men's Health and Fertility

with Peter Deadman

September 29 & 30, 2007

Course Outline

The Clinical Application of Common and Unusual Acupuncture Points (Half Day)

The art of acupuncture lies in the selection and needling of acupuncture points. This weekend will be devoted to point selection, and specifically the use of both common and unusual acupuncture points. The source material will be the long historical tradition of Chinese medicine, the 25 years clinical experience of the teacher, and clinical research mainly carried out in China.

We will focus on the application of some of the less well known acupuncture points as well as revisiting some of the more commonly used points. The use of all points will be illustrated by case histories.

The Treatment of Male Disorders by Acupuncture (One and Half Days)

Many practitioners of Chinese medicine are well acquainted with the intricacies of gynaecology and there are many textbooks published and seminars offered on this important subject.

By contrast, disorders that are specific to men are very frequently ignored and most practitioners are not well informed on their presentation and how Chinese medicine can help. It may be that men’s reluctance to be open about personal problems (both emotional and physical) plays a part in this relative silence. It may also be the fact that in many Western countries, the majority of patients and indeed the majority of practitioners are female.

Of the various specifically male complaints, four are particularly suitable for treatment by acupuncture.

Erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction (difficulty achieving and/or maintaining an erection) may impact negatively on a man’s quality of life and his sense of self-esteem. Even more importantly it may be the first signifier of a serious disease. For many men erectile dysfunction is the first indication of a blood vessel problem that will end up with a serious complication within three years, either a heart attack or a stroke.

Whilst the new generation of erectile dysfunction drugs have proved very successful and have also, incidentally brought the subject much more into the open, they are not without problems. They may have unacceptable side-effects, diminish in effectiveness and fail to treat many men successfully. More importantly, they are directed only at the biao (manifestation) and fail to address the ben (root) of this disorder.

Acupuncture can play an major role in helping erectile dysfunction, whether it belongs to the 80% which has a physical cause or the 20% which is emotional in origin. In this presentation, I will give a western medicine overview of erectile dysfunction and explain both the physiology and pathology of the erection process according to Chinese medicine. We will of course also look at the differentiation of patterns, acupuncture points, needling methods, lifestyle changes and – most importantly - physical exercises that can be used to treat this problem.

Male infertility
Male infertility, or more correctly male subfertility, has long been thought to contribute to around 50% of couple infertility. In the light of the growing number of men presenting at infertility clinics, the rise in ICSI procedures compared to IVF, and the well documented and now incontrovertible steady decline in sperm counts and quality, this figure now appears to be rising. In fact the possible decline in male infertility reflects a wider crisis for men, with signs of similar increases in the incidence of testicular cancer, cryptorchidism and hypospadias.

There is very little that can be done in Western medicine to treat impaired sperm count and quality. If the male partner is subfertile, therefore, assisted reproduction techniques are generally advocated, with their requirement that the female partner takes fertility-enhancing medication. These procedures can be prolonged, exhausting and damaging to male self-esteem.

Fortunately, from clinical experience and a growing number of clinical studies, it is clear that acupuncture can often increase sperm count, motility and morphology.

In this presentation, we will take a Western medicine overview of male infertility, and then look at Chinese medicine pattern differentiation and treatment. We will review the use of the semen analysis as a ‘before’ and ‘after’ guide to treatment and discuss the overall treatment plan. Finally we will review the existing clinical studies into the treatment of male infertility by acupuncture.

Chronic pelvic pain syndrome in men (chronic prostatitis)
It is astonishing that chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) in men is not better known by many practitioners. With an incidence among all men of between 3% and 15% (depending on who is counting) it is the cause of significant pain and distress for sufferers. Presenting as pain in the anal-genital-pelvic region, in its most severe form it is largely intractable to treatment by Western medicine.

Again, the evidence is mounting that this disorder may be more successfully treated by acupuncture than by any other modality. We will look at its presenting symptoms, its differentiation by Chinese medicine and its treatment by acupuncture, and review a small number of clinical studies that have been carried out into CPPS and acupuncture.

Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH)
More than half of men in their sixties and as many as 80 percent in their seventies and eighties have some symptoms of BPH. Whilst there is no evidence that acupuncture can shrink an enlarged prostate, it is known that the degree of prostatic enlargement does not necessarily correlate to the severity of symptoms and that there is therefore a functional aspect the presentation, probably focused on the bladder. What is clear from clinical practice is that acupuncture can provide significant benefit in relieving the symptoms of BPH.