Diagnosing Male Infertility with a Mechanical Engineering Twist

Male infertility is undercovered and underdiscussed. If a couple is struggling to conceive, there’s a 50–50 chance that sperm health is a contributing factor. Diagnosing male infertility is getting easier with at-home tests—and a new study suggests a method for testing at home that would be more accurate. Study co-author Sushanta Mitra, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss how lower sperm adhesion could be used as a proxy for higher sperm motility.

Recommended reading:

Read the study:

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202400680

Are Sperm Counts Really Declining? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-sperm-counts-really-declining/ 

Wiggling Sperm Power a New Male Fertility Test https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wiggling-sperm-power-a-new-male-fertility-test/ 

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Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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