Acupuncture for male sexual dysfunction in the light of the new sexual traditional Chinese medicine

Male sexual dysfunction (MSD) is an umbrella term covering a number of diseases that impair sexual functioning and significantly affect patients’ and partners’ quality of life. Their prevalence is quite heterogeneous and, for many of them, age dependent, as many general health risk factors also constitute a threat to sexual and reproductive health, such as smoking, alcohol, illicit drugs, obesity, physical inactivity, and stress. The 2 most common ones are erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE), which can occur together in up to 50% of cases. A wide variety of treatments for MSD has been developed over the years, including pharmacologic, behavioral, psychosexual, and even surgical therapy. However, despite the efficacy and safety of many of these treatments, the elevated cost, adverse effects, and poor compliance often lead many patients to seek alternative treatments. In recent years, in the clinical practice and research fields, an increasing interest toward the use of complementary medicine for MSD has been raised. Complementary medicine includes herbal medicine, traditional remedies, and, most noteworthy, acupuncture. Acupuncture is the most representative and the most adopted therapeutic method of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a >3-millennia-old set of widespread notions for diagnosing and treating diseases and for preventing them.