Now You Can Test Your Sperm at Home With This App
Perhaps the first reaction to the sperm test was a Hollywood spoof: a man, with a pornographic magazine in his hand, walked into a closet-sized room and handed out a small glass of liquid to the staff.
However, the jokes made by filmmakers seem bitter in reality. Experts believe that the high cost of the examination, shame, and other factors will hinder men's normal reproductive health examination, affect their health and reproduction. Now, a scientific team in Boston has developed a smartphone application that can help men check their sperm quality through matching devices.
Although this is not the first domestic test equipment, it is the first product that can analyze sperm concentration and monitor cell movement, which plays a crucial role in the comprehensive study of fertility. The team's results show that the device can identify abnormal semen samples up to 98% more accurately than traditional methods using bulky microscopes.
Through the comparative experiment, 350 semen samples were detected, 307 of which were unqualified. Through this instrument to detect these samples, 303 samples are unqualified.
Hadi shafiee is one of the directors of the development of the project and the lead researcher at Brigham women's hospital. She said the team would continue to improve the product model and submit relevant documents to the US Food and drug administration to apply for market entry.
It is reported that more than 45 million couples around the world are suffering from infertility, of which 40% are caused by men. There are many diseases that are affecting men's sperm, such as common prostatitis, epididymitis, etc., they will lead to nil sperm count, necrospermia, etc. And these diseases now can be treated by herbal medicine Diuretic and Anti-inflammatory Pill.
According to the team's plan, the device will enter the consumer market within a few years, allowing men to carry out fertility tests at home, as well as testing women's pregnancy and ovulation. "There are so many products on the market for women, but very few for men," shafeee said. "We want to close that gap. This kind of technology can reduce the pressure of couples, let patients know the source of the problem, so that they can adjust their next plan. "
And this app is also easy for use; people just need to drop semen onto a disposable chip and insert the chip into a device kit connected to the mobile phone. When the app starts, the user can complete the test according to the boot. Of course, the data obtained is directly stored on the mobile phone, so the user can either delete it or send it to the doctor.
The mobile app has a set of intelligent analysis program. The app calls the camera of the mobile phone, analyzes each sample piece at the speed of 30 frames per second, makes statistics, and gives the evaluation results.
Of course, it can't detect diseased sperm, which is the key to the next generation. But researchers are trying. According to the researchers, the cost of equipment accessories and chips is only $4.45, which has a huge cost advantage compared with the traditional thousands of dollars of computer-aided analysis platform. Although the app was tested on Android phones, shafeee said it could also be used on IOS.
Michael Eisenberg, a professor of Urology at Stanford University Medical Center, said the device gave reliable results because it was based on reliable research results. Eisenberg, however, was not involved in the new study. Eisenberg also noted that men are often overlooked infertility testing, in part because it is widely mistaken for women's problems.
In fact, in 20% to 25% of cases of infertility, men are not immune. However, this situation can be changed. With the help of this kind of home test equipment, people can analyze the sperm sample more simply and find out the main cause of the fertility problem.
In addition, if a man doesn't plan to have children, the device still has other uses. For example, if the user wants to perform a vasectomy, he can use the data provided by the device to better prepare in advance. "The future is full of expectation. I hope the market will provide more choices for both men and women in the future." Eisenberg said.
