Does acupuncture improve sexual dysfunction? A systematic review

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Sexual dysfunction can adversely affect the quality of life and interpersonal relationships. nowadays, a lot of attention is paid to traditional Chinese medicine with better curative effects and less adverse events. Recent studies have implied the promising effect of acupuncture on sexual function. This systematic review evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in treating female and male sexual dysfunction. Content PubMed, Cochrane Central of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched up to 2021. No limitation to language and date. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Summary Among 160 initially assessed papers, 13 articles were included. The findings showed that acupuncture improve sexual dysfunction in domains of desire, libido, erectile dysfunction and impotency. Most studies did not report any serious side effects from acupuncture, and only three studies reported minor adverse events. Outlook The available evidence indicate that acupuncture has positive on improvement of sexual dysfunction with no serious side effects. Although acupuncture has gained increasing popularity for the management of sexual dysfunction, high methodological quality evidence regarding its efficacy is lacking.