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Daily Dose: Male Fertility Test

Aired July 15, 2003 - 11:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's fill out this hour with one other item of news today. This comes to us from our "Daily Dose" of health news, male fertility tests.
Can an at-home test help men determine just how fertile they are? Our medical news correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta checks in now from New York to talk about that.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. ' It's called fertile mark, Leon. It's a sort of a relatively new test actually designed for men to use in private in their homes, and to measure sperm count. I want to talk about that a little bit. But just some facts, first of all. About 6.1 million people living in the United States infertile, about 10 percent of all reproductive-age people, 20 percent of couples. And here's a statistics most should remember but should know, is that half the time it's on the man's side, and half the time it's on the woman's side. About 40 percent of infertile couples due to problems on the man's side, 40 percent on the woman's side, and 20 percent of the time they either don't know or it's a combination of both.

To help shift through that, there is a test out there, Fertile Mark. It's basically like a home pregnancy test. It's a test -- you can see a picture of it there. It has a jar of wells there. And basically, pretty simple. You put some of the sperm it in these wells, and if the sperm actually turns a darker color of blue, and that is a good sign, that is a positive sight, showing that there is, in fact, over 20 million per milliliter in the specimen. And if it's less than that, it turns a lighter shade of blue, pretty simple test.

There are some normal numbers from the World Health Organization to look for to determine how fertile a couple should be, about 40 million to 300 million for men sperm range per milliliter, below 10 million is going to be a poor number. It's fine at about 20 million, likely to be fertile.

Leon, this test costs about $40, takes about a half hour. Again, take advantage of it being that it's really very private. The critics will tell you, though -- and we've talked to several of them -- that sperm count alone is not enough to determine whether or not a man is fertile. There are several different things that go into that -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, explain those other things for us. GUPTA: Well, you know, for example, there is hormone levels. You'll actually look at the hormone levels in a man's body. You'll look at the PH levels. That's the acidity of the sperm, white blood cell count, which is sort of a test of someone's immune system, to see how healthy they are.

When it comes to the sperm itself, besides a total count, which again, this particular test does measure, there is the concentration, there is the motility, how good a swimmers they are, speed, size and shape. All of those things very important.

Important as well, Leon, to mention that this test alone, really the design is to drive men to the doctors who are concerned about fertility, not to act as a reassurance that a man is either fertile or not fertile. This is a preliminary screening only -- Leon.

BLITZER: All right, thanks, Sanjay. Appreciate that.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, giving us that news right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 15, 2003 - 11:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's fill out this hour with one other item of news today. This comes to us from our "Daily Dose" of health news, male fertility tests.
Can an at-home test help men determine just how fertile they are? Our medical news correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta checks in now from New York to talk about that.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. ' It's called fertile mark, Leon. It's a sort of a relatively new test actually designed for men to use in private in their homes, and to measure sperm count. I want to talk about that a little bit. But just some facts, first of all. About 6.1 million people living in the United States infertile, about 10 percent of all reproductive-age people, 20 percent of couples. And here's a statistics most should remember but should know, is that half the time it's on the man's side, and half the time it's on the woman's side. About 40 percent of infertile couples due to problems on the man's side, 40 percent on the woman's side, and 20 percent of the time they either don't know or it's a combination of both.

To help shift through that, there is a test out there, Fertile Mark. It's basically like a home pregnancy test. It's a test -- you can see a picture of it there. It has a jar of wells there. And basically, pretty simple. You put some of the sperm it in these wells, and if the sperm actually turns a darker color of blue, and that is a good sign, that is a positive sight, showing that there is, in fact, over 20 million per milliliter in the specimen. And if it's less than that, it turns a lighter shade of blue, pretty simple test.

There are some normal numbers from the World Health Organization to look for to determine how fertile a couple should be, about 40 million to 300 million for men sperm range per milliliter, below 10 million is going to be a poor number. It's fine at about 20 million, likely to be fertile.

Leon, this test costs about $40, takes about a half hour. Again, take advantage of it being that it's really very private. The critics will tell you, though -- and we've talked to several of them -- that sperm count alone is not enough to determine whether or not a man is fertile. There are several different things that go into that -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, explain those other things for us. GUPTA: Well, you know, for example, there is hormone levels. You'll actually look at the hormone levels in a man's body. You'll look at the PH levels. That's the acidity of the sperm, white blood cell count, which is sort of a test of someone's immune system, to see how healthy they are.

When it comes to the sperm itself, besides a total count, which again, this particular test does measure, there is the concentration, there is the motility, how good a swimmers they are, speed, size and shape. All of those things very important.

Important as well, Leon, to mention that this test alone, really the design is to drive men to the doctors who are concerned about fertility, not to act as a reassurance that a man is either fertile or not fertile. This is a preliminary screening only -- Leon.

BLITZER: All right, thanks, Sanjay. Appreciate that.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, giving us that news right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com