The Checkup: First At-Home Sperm-Count Test Hits the Market
• The women I know who struggle with infertility have it rough. There’s the prodding and poking and doctors appointments, of course, plus enough hormone shots, ovulation kits and homeopathic remedies to drive a woman crazy. Men are often left out of the infertility picture, despite the fact that, well, it takes two to tango, baby. Enter: the first ever at-home male fertility test, which comes with a 98 percent accuracy rate. The test, called SpermCheck, costs $39.99, reports TIME, and can be completed in 10 minutes. It tells you if your sperm counts are normal, at 20 million or more sperm per milliliter; if not, off to the doctor you go. The product will be on pharmacy shelves in April. I’m sure you’ll find it next to all those ovulation kits.
• TIME’s really on a reproductive kick it seems. Staffers there posted a story yesterday about a potentially groundbreaking discovery: egg-producing stem cells in human ovaries. Yup, looks like the eggs you’re born with aren’t necessarily all the eggs you can ever make, despite what you learned in sixth grade health class. If confirmed, the finding could someday be translated into an effective treatment for infertility in women.
• When it comes to kids, “active” video games—Wii Fit, et al—don’t actually provoke them to move around and get exercise. But then, you probably already guessed that.