There's now a smartphone app that can accurately measure your sperm count
Scientists have developed a smartphone app for measuring sperm count which, they say, can be used at home with no special training required.
Hadi Shafiee, leader of the research team at Harvard Medical School, said: “We wanted to come up with a solution to make male infertility testing as simple and affordable as home pregnancy tests.”
The system they came up with involves an external device, created from parts taken from DVD and CD drives. Sperm is loaded into the device, which then plugs into a smartphone.
Using a phone app, users can then take a close-up look a the sperm sample through the phone’s screen - the phone essentially being used as a microscope - and the app will then analyse the movements of the sperm cells.
In tests looking at more than 350 semen samples, the smartphone system was shown to identify abnormal sperm samples with 98 per cent accuracy.
The research team's finding were published in the latest issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine. Study co-author John Petrozza described the device as a “true game-changer”, adding: “Men have to provide semen samples in these rooms at a hospital, a situation in which they often experience stress, embarrassment, pessimism and disappointment.
“Current clinical tests are lab-based, time-consuming and subjective. This test is low-cost, quantitative, highly accurate and can analyse a video of an undiluted, unwashed semen sample in less than five seconds.”
Shafiee told NPR that FDA approval will be sought for the system, with mass production of the devices planned in the near future. "I am confident that this can go to customers at below $50 (£39) when it is ready," he said.
