Two years ago, an anxious patient A, N, 32 years old, came to my office, he was a graduate student in MTSU from African Kenya, his main complaint was zero sperm. He wanted to have his children with his wife, he has gone to different fertility clinics in his country and American, he was told there was no way he could have a child without donor sperm.

But he did not want to give up, he was trying to find alternative methods to help him fulfill his dream, during research, he heard from one of my patients about me, my patient told him I helped his sperm quality and his male function, he was able to have a child on his own. So A,N came to me with a huge hope, but he did not know his condition was different than my patient, my patient whom I treated before still could produce some sperm, but AN’s lab results showed no sperm. I asked his disease history, he had mumps infection when he was eight years old, the infections had affected his both side testes. He was diagnosed as orchitis ten years ago. He has done three times testis biopsy, it all showed blockage in the vas deferens and no sign of sperm development at both side. There is no treatment using western medicine, also it cannot be treated by microsurgery.

Since he heard a lot of good thing about acupuncture from my patient, he came to my office as his last hope. He said he wished I could give him some magic. I told him there is no magic in acupuncture, I also do not have a magic wand or a magic spell. But I can try my best to help him with Chinese medicine, I used five Chinese medicine diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation, olfaction, inquiry, and palpation. After I Inspected his face and particularly on his tongue, examined his pulse, inquired his regularity, perspiration, appetite, thirst, taste, defecation, urination, pain, sleep etc, I gathered all the information, analyzed his problems: kidney qi and essential Jing are deficiency, Liver qi is stasis, qi and blood are blocked at Cong meridian. I was honest with him that I had not treated patient with azoospermia like his condition before, but if he was willing to try, I would do my best.

AN wanted to give a try, after few treatments he felt less of anxious, slept much better and focus better at school, those changes encouraged him to continue his treatments, gradually he felt less of cold at feet and hands, less of fatigue, after six month I asked him to do another testicular biopsy, this time it showed there were some sperm produced, even though they were not enough to retrieval but it was a very positive sign and hope for us, his urologist doctor even told him whatever you were doing, just keep doing it. I continue treat him with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, one year later he was able to get enough sperm from testicular biopsy to do IVF, his wife got pregnant. When he told me the good news I was so happy for them, he also felt blessed and happy by the results. He said:” Dr.Zhang, you are right, acupuncture is not magic, but it produce miracle.”

©Dr.Li Zhang