Have attended, Sperm Test Tool Yourself!

You are curious to test sperm, but ashamed to come to the doctor or the lab? In the future, make yourself at home sperm test is not an impossible thing. Experts in the Netherlands offers a solution by creating a practical means of male fertility test that can be done at home.

Loes Segerink and his team at the MESA + Institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, developed a miniature device measuring 10 cm in sperm that can perform the test in seconds. Tools that proverbial "lab on a chip".

Admittedly, these tools are useful. However, the question arises about the ethical use of it if without getting input from a professional. The reason, a reliable method of manual calculation time is always accompanied by an expert or doctor consultation. It is feared that, without consultation, the tool can even be detrimental.

Generally, a man somewhat embarrassed to check the quality of sperm in addition to the procedure, the analysis also takes a long time in the laboratory. Ejaculated sperm analysis results should be initiated at the same hour. That is, unless the patient is next door to the fertility clinic, she could not prepare a sperm sample from home and had to immediately "produce" in the lab as well. Once the sample is submitted to the lab, took a long time to perform the manual counting method.

"With our system, we can solve the problem," said Segerink.
According to him, his findings chip only need 12 seconds to release the results and the degree of possible fault with the manual counting method. The device could be used in fertility center hospital, but also could be adapted so that there is a cheap and practical variation that can be used at home.

On the other hand, Michael Dunn, medical ethics researcher at Oxford University, expressed concern. "There is a risk to the patient if they are not given relevant information about the impact of positive results of sterility," he said.

That is, if the outcome turns out the patient was barren, he should be given appropriate information so that not one of perception.

Tools such medical examiner is now more necessary. Another example is the Hywel Morgan and his partners from the University of Southampton who developed a more practical tool to test the viral infection and anemia only from a speck of blood.

"Tools like this allow the distribution of health services to the community at large," said Morgan, "However, if you're diagnosing the disease, the results (test of the instrument) must be handled appropriately."

"Even if the technology is ready for the market, community preparedness is still a problem," said Morgan. (C17-09)