Sweet Bee Venom Pharmacopuncture May be Effective for Treating Sexual Dysfunction

Sexual dysfunction (SD) is a health problem which occurs during any phase of the sexual response cycle that keeps the individual or couple from experiencing satisfaction from the sexual activity. SD covers a wide variety of symptoms like in men, erectile dysfunction and premature or delayed ejaculation, in women, spasms of the vagina and pain with sexual intercourse, in both sexes, sexual desire and response. And pharmacopuncture, i.e. injection of subclinical doses of drugs, mostly herb medicine, in acupoints, has been adopted with successful results. This case report showed the effect of bee venom on SD. A 51-year-old male patient with SD, who had a past history of taking Western medication to treat his SD and who had previously undergone surgery on his lower back due to a herniated disc, received treatments using pharmacopuncture of sweet bee venom (SBV) at Gwanwon (CV4), Hoeeum (CV1), Sinsu (BL23), and Gihaesu (BL24) for 20 days. Objectively, the patient showed improvement on most items on the International Index for Erectile Dysfunction (IIEF) like 28 to 29 out of perfect score 30 for erectile function, 10 to 10 out of perfect score 10 for orgasmic function, 6 to 8 out of perfect score 10 for sexual desire, 10 to 13 out of perfect score 15 for satisfaction with intercourse, and 6 to 8 out of perfect score 10 for overall satisfaction; subjectively, his words, the tone of his voice and the look of confidence in his eyes all indicated improvement. Among the variety of effects of SBV pharmacopuncture, urogenital problems such as SD may be health problems that pharmacopuncture can treat effectively.