DIY FERTILITY TEST DEVELOPED The London medical firm Genosis has developed the world’s first ‘his and hers’ home fertility test kit and it is expected to be sold over-the-counter by next year. The kit, which is a result of a four-year collaboration between Genosis and fertility doctors at Birmingham University has been devised as an early warning system for couples trying to conceive. It is said to be 95 per cent accurate and would take 40 minutes to tell men and 15 minutes to tell women whether they are able to have children. Couples are currently advised not to seek medical assistance unless they have been trying to conceive for over a year. Now the possibility of a home test means they would be able to arm themselves with evidence indicating any problems and get appropriate help earlier. However, the big breakthrough is the male test. The leader of the university research team Professor Christopher Barratt said: “Forty per cent of all cases of infertility are due to male factors and this test can indicate early on if there is potentially a problem with the man that indicates the couple should seek advice." The kit, to be called Fertell, is capable of detecting a vast majority, but not all, of male infertility factors. The male test requires sperm to come into contact with artificial cervical mucus to detect active sperm, and a semen sample exceeding 10 million motile sperm per ml would show up as a red line indicating normal fertility levels. The female test measures levels of a hormone secreted by the ovaries and also the number of eggs stored there - a low egg count meaning greater infertility. The kit’s development follows concern regarding rising infertility rates and an increase in couples seeking IVF treatment. (The Guardian, Daily Express) http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/news/index.asp?y=2001&m=7&d=2#id55315
In Friendship Katherine Findlay United Kingdom Adhesion Society mailto:kath.findlay@adhesions.org.uk http://www.adhesions.org.uk