Sperm test kit could save years of anguish

The first home testing kit for male fertility has been developed by British scientists who believe it will give vital early warning of potential problems for couples trying to have a baby.

Trials of a prototype sperm test have been done on more than a hundred men, half of whom were known to have abnormal semen caused by producing low-motility sperm, which are poor swimmers. The test mimics the natural obstacle-course faced by sperm as they swim along a woman's reproductive tract on their way to fertilise the egg.

Details of the test will be revealed today at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting in Lausanne where scientists from the University of Birmingham will announce the first results of trials on 118 men.

Professor Christopher Barratt, who led the research team, said the study had shown that the test was able to distinguish between healthy and abnormal sperm with 90 per cent accuracy.

Having a home test for men would allow men to seek medical advice much earlier than at present so that couples did not have to delay fertility treatment during a crucial time of their lives when unnecessary delays could make the difference between success and failure, Professor Barratt said.

"It is aimed at couples who are attempting to conceive. The current screen for infertility is to try for 12 months and then to seek medical advice," Professor Barratt said.

"This test can indicate early on if there is potentially a problem with the man that indicates the couple should seek advice. This is particularly important given that many couples are choosing to defer childbearing until later in life," he said.

One in every six couples experience infertility as some point in their lives and 40 per cent of the time it is due to problems with the man. Another 40 per cent is caused by female problems and the remaining 20 per cent is due to a joint problem.

A home test for men will also allow them to assess their sperm quality without having to give semen samples in a clinic or hospital, a procedure some men find embarrassing.

The test works by placing drops of sperm into a container that is heated to body temperature (37C). A button is pressed to release an artificial mucus similar to the fluid lining a woman's cervix, the neck of the womb.

Only motile sperm can swim through the column of mucus to the "finishing line", a point where they bind to a substance that changes colour. A red band eventually appears when the concentration of motile sperm is higher than 10 million per ml, which is the World Health Organisation threshold for "normal" semen.

"The test reproduces the obstacle course that the sperm has to negotiate naturally. It cannot distinguish all cases of male infertility, however it will identify the vast majority of cases," Professor Barratt said.

Larger-scale clinical trials are planned for Britain and America and will be conducted by Genosis, a medical devices company that has worked with Professor Barratt on developing the test.

Professor Richard Sharpe, a specialist on male infertility at the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Biology Unit in Edinburgh, said the method sounded "like an ingenious test".