Scientists have developed a first-of-its-kind portable fertility test kit that allows men to monitor the quality of their sperm from the privacy of their own homes, and it may be available by early next year.
The fertility test developed by scientists from Sandia National Laboratories could gauge a man's sperm quality within a few minutes.
According to researchers, Greg Sommer and Ulrich Schaff, the diagnostic kit allows men to self-test for sperm quality in just five minutes with a few drops of semen.
"It allows men to test and track their fertility from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. It's a portable, easy-to-use diagnostic system with the accuracy of a clinical lab test," Sommer told the Albuquerque Journal.
Researchers said the device, called TrakFertility, could be available in the market by early 2015, after the company receives regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The device would provide an ongoing home diagnostic for men to regularly monitor semen quality as they take steps to improve fertility, researchers said.
"It would be like using a scale to follow weight, only in this case, men would track changes in their fertility," Sommer said.
The company is also developing a mobile app to help men track and analyse the results of their tests and communicate about them with their doctors.
Sommer said the goal is to broaden today's focus on women's fertility to include the other side of the equation.
"We want to help people conceive in a way never done before," he said.
"The market today is completely focused on females to monitor hormones, temperatures and so forth for peak fertility windows each month. But one of every five men has low-sperm counts that can impair conception," said Sommer.
