There may be, in the near future, a home test that can test male semen to determine whether the man is fertile or not and can fertilize the female egg to produce offspring.  Fertility problems are either on the rise or more recognized nowadays, whether it is because we have the internet media and everyone is more aware that it is a problem or not, we do hear about fertility a lot more these days.  Usually we hear about it when it is a woman who is having fertility problems, but we know that men can have the same problems. 

A man can be sterile or simply not produce enough sperm in his semen to impregnate a woman.  Sure, college guys who are nowhere near settling down and want to have sexual intercourse with no worries about making babies may think this sounds “awesome”, but when they are older they and their partners may desire to have children of their own, and male fertility issues can prevent them from reproducing. 

The home test would be able to detect a protein in a man’s semen and determine from this whether the man is fertile or not.  Pretty high tech idea, and it may take a while to get to market.  I have a question though, why not just let doctors administer this test, or is this like the male equivalent of the female pregnancy test?  Might this tell men that they need to start consuming the best multivitamins for men that they can in hopes of strenghtening their sperm into better, stronger swimmer?  I keed, I keed of course. 

A protein chemical called MIF for short is the chemical in a man’s body that would show up in his semen.  This chemical is supposed to be responsible for making a man’s sperm strong swimmers, so to speak, so that they can make it all the way up to the female’s egg and live long enough to burrow through the egg, fertilizing it and resulting eventually in a fetus that develops into a baby.

The problem with men who are infertile is that they either do not have this chemical at all or do not have enough of it, and their sperm are rendered weaker and unable to make the swim far enough to fertilize the woman’s egg.  They end up dying before they reach their destination, basically!  This test could help doctors and couples determine what their next steps should be, and also detects who in the partnership is the one that is unable to conceive so that they can be the one that gets the necessary treatment and increases their odds of conceiving naturally.