14 DAY TRIAL // Male vanity hardly copes with the fact that in 50 % of the cases, the couple's infertility is the man's fault. It is even trickier to get him to see a doctor for a fertility evaluation.
The new at-home screening test, called Fertell, has solved this. This is the first at-home device to test the concentration of motile sperm, and women's hormone levels as an indicator of egg quality.
The two-in-one test signals that both men and women can be behind infertility issues. "It takes two to have a baby, as silly as that sounds," said Dr. Harry Fisch, director of the Male Reproductive Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, not involved in the test's development by Genosis Inc. "The test results could give couples early warning that they should see a doctor. Couples often don't appreciate this. So many times the woman goes through all these tests, and the guy doesn't even have a semen analysis.", Fisch says.
"The test for the male requires a semen sample; it assesses the ability of sperm to swim through a solution similar to cervical mucus, as well as the number able to do so," said Dr. Keith B. Isaacson, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School who works with Genosis.
Men get the results in 80 minutes and women in 30. The female fertility test detects the level of follicle stimulating hormone on the third day of the menstrual cycle from urine. Too much of it points to low egg quality.
Of course the tests are not definitive: they screen for main problems, but the couple still needs to pay a visit to the doctor as it will not show all fertility-related factors.
In US alone one million women seek medical help for fertility-related issues.
Within couples, the issue is linked to the woman in 40 % of the cases, to the man 40 % of the cases, and to both in the 20 % of the cases. "Most people are surprised to hear that almost 50 % of the time, it's a male factor. But women are still more likely to initiate treatment. My guess is the female partner is the one who's going to buy this and encourage the guy to use it." Isaacson said. Fertell needs no prescription and costs about $100.