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There seems to be a trend bubbling up for better tech to test a guy\u2019s sperm in the privacy of his own home. A Harvard-designed sperm motility app made headlines<\/a> last week with a cheap, at-home test and now YO, a \u201csperm selfie\u201d app and FDA-approved device has just started shipping.<\/p>\n Weird moving sperm contributes to around 40 percent<\/a> of cases where couples have a hard time making a baby but it can be awkward, expensive and a hassle for a guy to go through depositing sperm at the doctor\u2019s office to find out if it\u2019s moving the right way.<\/p>\n However, there are already at-home tests you can buy at your nearest drugstore such as SpermCheck, which boast itself as \u201caccurate as a lab test.\u201d This test is usually found in the same aisle as the at-home pregnancy tests and prophylactics. But SpermCheck will only tell if you have enough sperm, not if they swim right.<\/p>\n Trak is another device with FDA clearance that has been available to order online for a while but also only tracks the count, not movement of sperm, and is pretty pricey at $200 (compare that to YO, which is just under $50).<\/p>\n Unlike SpermCheck and Trak, the YO device uses a similar measurement system to the one being developed at Harvard. Both measure MSC (motile sperm count) to make sure sperm is moving the right way rather than just sperm count overall.<\/p>\n Also, for those curious, the sperm does not touch your cellphone. You put the sperm on a slide and then slip\u00a0into the device and wait about seven minutes. It then uses the accompanying app to determine if your sperm is healthy.<\/p>\n Of course, you may still want to go to a doctor to discuss your results and motility isn\u2019t the only thing a guy should be concerned with. Sperm morphology and environment\u00a0are also important factors, according to a couple of physicians we asked about the product. Heat, for instance, can also affect motility and men who spend time in hot tubs or wear tight clothing may not realize how that affects their sperm.<\/p>\n But it is at least an easier, cheaper and more private way to determine what might be going on (or at least eliminate sperm motility as the reason for a couple\u2019s infertility issues).<\/p>\n YO\u2019s app (not to be confused with that other silly social app that lets you send a\u00a0\u201cYo\u201d t<\/a>o your friends) works on both Android and iOS and both the app and device were developed by the Los Angeles-based lab company Medical Electronic Systems (MES), which has made commercial-grade semen analyzers for the past 20 years.<\/p>\n Watch the video below to get a better idea of how YO works for yourself:<\/p>\n