How are the little swimmers doing? Low sperm counts or poor sperm quality are to blame in around a third of cases of couples who can’t conceive. A visit to a clinic for a test can be awkward, but a new smartphone-based system lets men determine whether that’s necessary by checking their fertility in the comfort of their own home.
Men often find it embarrassing to provide a semen sample at a clinic, says Yoshitomo Kobori of the Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital in Japan. So Kobori devised an alternative. “Everyone has a smartphone now, and they have good cameras,” he says. “I thought a smartphone microscope could be an easy way to look at problems with male fertility.”
