How to Check Your Own Sperm Count at Home

How to Count Your Own Sperm

Male fertility can be a problem for some but the University of Virigina has now come up with a kit that will allow you to check your own sperm count at home. A Home SpermCheck Test Kit has been developed to help you count your own sperm and see whether you are fertile or not.

Male fertility accounts for approximately 50% of infertility cases, up until now to check whether your sperm were fertile or not you had to visit a clinic and provide your sample in a test tube to the nice people in the clinic. Now you can do it all in the privacy of your own home thanks to a home test kit based developed by University of Virginia Health System biologist John C. Herr, which can assist in determining if your sperm count is "normal", "low", or "very low".

The kit is based on a protein in sperm discovered by Dr. Herr. By measuring sperm levels you can determine whether your levels of sperm are normal (20 million and above per milliliter) low (between 5 million and 20 million per milliliter) and very low (below 5 million). The device works in the same way as home pregnancy kits, with lines that change color based on the number of sperm per milliliter.

 SpermCheck Fertility has already been cleared for sale in the European Union and is now undergoing review by the US FDA. Dr Herr says the protein SP-10 is present at constant levels in each sperm head.  The SpermCheck Fertility test can be used by couples who suspect infertility, but it can also be used by men who are just curious and want to know if their sperm count is normal (although you may also prefer not to know!).

After carrying out the test a couple can decide whether to seek comprehensive clinical evaluation of the man's fertility status. The self-test could save time and money for "couples struggling with infertility by identifying which partner may need further evaluation."

RESULTS of the tests carried out: 225 semen samples were analyzed, the performance of SpermCheck Fertility was excellent with over 96% of all samples correctly classified as normozoospermic (normal), oligozoospermic (low) or severely oligozoospermic (very low). Studies with 164 lay users demonstrated that SpermCheck Fertility was easy to use. Lay users and professionals agreed 95% of the time when reading the same test. The correct response rate on a 20-question survey about the test was over 97%.

CONCLUSIONS: SpermCheck Fertility is a "simple and reliable immunodiagnostic test that can quickly inform men as to whether their sperm count is normal, low or very low. This home test can assist couples in deciding whether to seek comprehensive clinical evaluation of the fertility status of the male partner."