There Is Now An App For Sperm Testing

A new device that attaches to a smartphone can detect whether a man’s sperm concentration or motility is abnormal with 98 percent accuracy. Researchers hope the device, which is about the size of a small box of crayons and costs less than $5 to make, can address the need for a rapid and cheap way to detect male infertility. Problems with sperm contribute to infertility in 40 percent to 60 percent of cases where a couple has trouble conceiving, said study leader Hadi Shafiee, a professor of engineering in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Current laboratory methods of semen analysis are either inaccurate or expensive and require men to provide a sperm sample in awkward circumstances. [Trying to Conceive: 12 Tips for Men] “This device is going to make male infertility screening as simple as home pregnancy tests for a woman,” Shafiee told Live Science. Smartphone semen analysis The device has two parts: a box-like piece that attaches to the phone as if it were a larger-than-normal phone case, and a chip, which is about the size of a microscope slide. To test his sperm, a man uses a pipette (a turkey baster-like tube, but smaller) to put a semen sample onto a chip, and then he inserts the chip into a slot on the box-like attachment. Lenses on the attachment essentially turn the smartphone’s camera into a microscope, and a software app automatically counts the total number of sperm, calculates their concent...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news