Getting a semen analysis

Under 15 million per mL runs 1.5 times the hospital admission rate of men above 40 million.

Also called Seminogram, Spermiogram, Sperm count test, Home sperm test, Mail-in sperm test, Male fertility test

Who it's forAny man in his thirties, whether or not he wants children.

The item

Three squares: proven in human trials. Two: a strong signal. One: early human data. Striped: the trials disagree.

Drive Vitality Metabolism

Buffs

Low semen parameters predict higher all-cause mortality
Sperm concentration below 15 million per mL predicts earlier hospitalization and cardiovascular disease
Men presenting with infertility and abnormal semen carry sharply higher testicular cancer incidence
A single semen sample carries within-subject variation too large to read as a diagnosis
Abstinence duration changes volume, concentration, motility and DNA fragmentation
Most men in couples seeking fertility care are never evaluated
Male factor infertility predicts later diabetes and ischemic heart disease
Home motile-sperm-concentration kits match laboratory analyzers in untrained hands
Smartphone analyzers match manual analysis on concentration and count
Specimens shipped overnight and analyzed at a fixed 26 hours reproduce clinic results
Home screening shortens time to specialist evaluation at low incremental cost
A home screen flags a low sample far more reliably than it confirms a normal one

Debuffs

Know firstTesticular cancer incidence about 20-fold above the general population in men with infertility and an abnormal analysis
Know firstTesticular cancer in 10.5 percent of azoospermic men with a complete Sertoli-cell-only pattern
Know firstAll-cause hospitalization 1.5 times higher, and first hospitalization about seven years earlier, at the bottom of the concentration range
Know firstA 2.3-fold mortality rate against men with normal semen in the same infertility cohort, in men with two or more abnormal parameters
ManageableA single low sample acted on as a diagnosis when the critical difference for concentration is 78 percent
ManageableA normal home-kit result taken as final, when one such device read specificity of only 66.7 percent
ManageableMotility scored low because the sample cooled or sat before it was read
MildVolume, count and motility swinging with the number of abstinence days
MildA first sample under the reference limit that reads normal on the repeat

“Get your sperm tested. It predicts a lot more than whether you can have kids.”

Emergency: call 911.

I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. This is self-education. Talk to a physician who has your history before you change anything.