Impact of Ejaculation Upon Effect of Acupuncture on Chronic Prostatitis/chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Acupuncture can improve chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). Ejacu-lation frequencies might impact the conditions of CP/CPPS. The present study aimed to explore the impact of different ejaculation frequencies on the effect of acupuncture among men with CP/CPPS.Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the data from a multicenter, randomized, clinical trial. Eligible participants were patients with moderate to severe CP/CPPS, who had taken 8-week acupuncture treat-ment, and followed until week 32. Participants fell into the category of 0-3, 4-7, or at least 8 according to their monthly ejaculation frequencies reported at baseline. The primary outcome was the proportion of responders, defined as men who reported at least 6 points reduction from baseline in the National Institute of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH -CPSI) total score at weeks 8 and 32.Results: 214 participants were included in this secondary analysis, of whom 42 reported a monthly ejac-ulation frequency of 0-3, 89 reported a frequency of 4-7, and 83 reported a frequency of at least 8. At week 8, 52.20% participants with an ejaculation frequency of 0-3 responded to the acupuncture treat-ment, 65.38% participants with a frequency of 4-7 responded, and 63.09% participants with a frequency of at least 8 responded. At week 32, 56.14%, 59.57%, and 68.36% participants responded in the three groups, respectively. No significant differences were observed between three groups (all P > 0.05).Conclusion: Acupuncture can improve symptoms of CP/CPPS, regardless of ejaculation frequencies. Ejacu-lation frequencies may not affect the efficacy of acupuncture on CP/CPPS among Chinese men.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03213938 (c) 2023 Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )