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It’s a different kind of junk mail.
UK men now can package and send their semen to see if they can father children.
British health technology company Jack Fertility recently debuted its postal fertility test, deemed the first of its kind in the area. Shy guys can collect their own sample at home and send it via Royal Mail, allowing them to avoid a visit to a clinic — where stage fright could strike.
Typically, these donations are used to analyze the quality of the sperm and the sperm count in people who want to become parents.
“The team at Jack Fertility has been working hard for the last year to develop this unique, consumer-centric solution and empower people with sperm across the UK with a chance to take control of their fertility journeys from the comfort of their own home,” CEO Lily Elsner told Jam Press.
“It is so important to remove any barriers for couples trying to conceive, and for so many men, having to go to a clinic to take a test was a reason to avoid getting tested,” she added.
Jack Fertility’s services, which ring in around $250, cut out the awkward middle-man clinician. The samples, which are mailed in the cup provided with the kit, are sent to an Oxford lab to be scrutinized. Results are due back in a quickie 24 hours.
In the US, similar testing kits are available for around the same price. Legacy, for example, retails at $295, and for an additional cost, the company will freeze the sperm for later use.
Fertility specialists long believed a trip to an in-person clinic was vital for an accurate collection of sperm, and labs would typically analyze the specimen within an hour.
But a 2021 study from the University of Southern California found mail-in kits are just as effective for up to 52 hours after collection.
As clinics shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in fertility tests became the only option for some couples. The USC study — albeit with a “limited scope” — concluded that mail-in kits are “a reliable option to consider for routine clinical use in evaluating sperm.”
Around 15% of US couples have trouble conceiving, and over half the time, a male infertility issue is at play, according to Yale Medicine.
”We hope that both men and women are encouraged to order a test when trying to conceive, or even if they are just curious about their ability to have a child one day,” Elsner declared.
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