If your only reference for fertility testing involves a scene from a TV show where the guy goes into a sad, wallpapered room in a doctor’s office with an adult magazine, then it’s time to upgrade how you think about testing your semen.
It’s two decades into the new millennium, and you can get just about any test, prescription, or service mailed directly to your door, including fertility tests. A new crop of at-home tests for men like Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, and YO Sperm are making it easier to find out if your little swimmers are, in fact, healthy and ready to start a family. Ro Sperm and Legacy will even store your sperm for later use.
Where traditional fertility clinics can set you back over $1,000, these startups can help you understand your fertility for a fraction of the price. And if you’re planning a family, you’ll probably want to start saving asap for diapers, baby formula, and all the other expenses.
While female fertility has long been discussed openly, male fertility is only now becoming more mainstream and accessible. Given that 20 – 25% of couples can now expect fertility issues when trying to get pregnant, it’s valuable to know about your sperm earlier than later so you can start planning in the event of the unexpected. After all, if you’re unable to conceive the old-fashioned way, modern medicine offers many solutions. Best case scenario: you part with a small amount of cash today for the peace of mind of knowing you’re fertile and in good shape to start a family.
The best part about modern at-home fertility tests? They’re extremely convenient and easy to use. Let’s examine a few of the most cutting-edge male fertility testing services like Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, and YO Sperm to see how they work exactly. By the end, hopefully you’ll be able to decide if at-home fertility testing is right for you and which kit is best for your needs.
How do home sperm tests and male fertility kits like Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, and YO Sperm work?
Image Source: Ro Sperm
Imagine you’ve made the decision to test your sperm – a very sound choice. Well done, sir. But how exactly does it work? With at-hime kits from Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, and YO Sperm, you barely have to leave the living room, er bedroom — whichever sets the mood and allows for a few minutes of privacy.
At-home male fertility kits make the process easy with just five simple steps before you can glean more insight into your semen health. And some will even store your sperm sample as well.
STEP 1: Order a kit.
After a quick registration form online, Legacy, Ro Sperm, Fellow, and YO Sperm all discreetly ship a fertility kit to your door. Enter your home address for the most discretion, or ship it to your office to let the world know you’re ready for fatherhood — completely up to you.
STEP 2: Deposit your sperm sample.
Now for the fun part. Make sure to read the instructions carefully as you’d be surprised how easy it is to contaminate a semen sample. You’ll also want to map out a strategy for sending back your sample ASAP. Each minute your sperm is outside of your body, it’s dying, so time is of the essence when it comes to getting accurate results.
When you’re ready, find something arousing, then carefully deposit those swimmers into your kit. In case that went over anyone’s head: this step requires you to ejaculate into receptacle.
STEP 3: Test your sample or test it yourself.
With Fellow, Legacy or Ro Sperm, you’ll securely ship your sample to their CLIA certified lab for analysis and wait for your fertility results to arrive in a day or two. With YO Sperm, you can test your sperm yourself immediately using a smartphone attachment and mobile or desktop app. We’ll go into more detail into the pros and cons of each method below.
STEP 4: Review your fertility report.
Results come quickly. With YO Sperm, you’ll have your fertility report immediately on your phone upon testing, and you can even view a video of your sperm in action. Ro Sperm provides results and 10 videos of your sperm within 24 hours of receiving them, but can sometimes take up to a week to ship you a kit. With Legacy, your kit is sent via priority overnight shipping so it arrives the next day, and you’ll also receive results within 24 hours of sending in your sample, but no video (sorry visual learners).
STEP 5: Store your sperm (optional, for future use).
Ro Sperm, Legacy, and Fellow all offer options for cryostorage, allowing you to store your sperm for an annual fee. These companies will freeze your sperm using a special media, then keep it in liquid nitrogen at negative 196 degrees celsius, which allows it to maintain a reasonable quality for many years. Note that YO Sperm does not offer any such storage options.
Note: Many states require men to have taken an STI test in tandem with their storing their sperm in order to use the sperm later for IVF. That’s because no doctor wants to be liable for fertilizing an egg with a HIV-positive sperm, and in fact many state laws require negative STI results before administering IVF. Thus, you should make sure your cryostorage provider offers an STI test as well.
Who should use an at-home sperm test or male fertility kit like Ro Sperm, Legacy or YO Sperm?
Unfortunately, you might just be the 1 in 10 men in the United States who are infertile, and that’s something you’d be better off knowing now than finding out later.
In general, it’s wise to be proactive about your health, especially with something as important as your ability to create a family.
At-home sperm and fertility tests are the right for anyone who is:
- Curious about their own health
- Ready to start a family
- Eager to secure the ability to
- Recovering from a vasectomy
That last one may seem like an outlier, but when you think about it, a male fertility kit is exactly what you need to verify that your vasectomy worked. Luckily kits from Legacy, Ro Sperm, and Fellow can be used to verify the efficacy of a vasectomy.
Aside from the use cases of the pro-active and intellectually curious, at-home fertility kits are ideal for busy professionals who’re struggling to conceive. Going in person to get their labs done is time-consuming and expensive. And new male fertility startups make it 10x more convenient than any in-person clinic anyway.
Companies like Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, and YO Sperm not only spare you the awkwardness of discussing your semen with another human being face to face, but they’ll also save you a few bucks, with kits starting as low as $69.95. That’s about the cost of most Americans’ co-pay for a doctor’s visit, and most lab tests will set you back anywhere from $200 – $300. Unfortunately only ~25% of health plans offer any coverage at all for semen analysis. When you factor in the cost and time savings, the question becomes: which at-home test is best?
What’s the best at-home at-home fertility test for men?
Below we compared Ro Sperm vs Legacy vs YoSperm vs Fellow to help you understand.
Best At-Home Male Fertility Kits: Ro Sperm vs Legacy vs Yo Sperm vs Fellow | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of At-Home Fertility Kit | $195 | $69.95 | ||
| Vials per Sperm Deposit | 3 | 4 | N/A | Depends on volume |
| Location of Semen Analysis | Third-party CLIA certified Lab | Legacy-owned CLIA certified Lab | At home via smartphone | Fellow-owned CLIA certified Lab |
| Fertility Results Turnaround Time | 24 hours | 24 hours | Immediate | 24 hours |
| FDA Approved? | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Where is it available? | All 50 states | All 50 states | All 50 states | All 50 states EXCEPT: |
| Video of Sperm Included in Report? | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| FSA/HSA Package Available? | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Insurance Coverage Available? | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Access to licensed medical professionals? | Ro Sperm offers access to a registered nurse to discuss next steps for an additional fee. | All Legacy packages include access to a fertility specialist. | ❌ | Fellow connects you with an in-house nurse practitioner to chat for no additional charge. |
| Protected by two-factor authentication & tamper-proof packaging? | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Morphology included? | ❌ costs $99 | ✅ | N/A | ✅ |
| Offers DNA Fragmentation? | ❌ | ✅ costs $195 | ❌ | ❌ |
| Able to verify a vasectomy (post-vas)? | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ Fellow offers a separate post-vas kit for just $120 $100 with code FINVSFIN20 |
| Customer Service Hours | 9-5, M-F | 24/7 | 9-5, M-F | 24/7 |
| Website |
Now that you have a general lay of the land when it comes to at-home male fertility kits, let’s dive a bit deeper into each provider so you can see which makes the most sense — Ro Sperm, Legacy, Fellow, or YoSperm.
Review of Legacy for Male Fertility
