Sperm have always been a precious commodity, given the critical role they play in generating new life. Even a relatively small change in the typical sperm count has a substantial impact on the percentage of men who will be classified as infertile or subfertile. It’s not just about sperm count, however; certain qualities, including movement patterns, are also essential for them to swim upstream to meet the egg of their dreams.

The psychological and medical burdens of dealing with fertility issues have been placed squarely on the women’s shoulders. Not only is this incorrect on the most basic level - given that it takes viable sperm + a healthy egg to create a pregnancy- it’s especially wrong now, when a high proportion of infertility issues can clearly be placed at men’s feet.

For couples who experience recurrent miscarriages, recent research has found that men have twice the level of DNA fragmentation in their sperm and 4 times higher levels of reactive oxygen species in their semen, which can cause DNA damage to sperm, than men whose partners didn’t have a history of miscarriage. In couples with recurrent pregnancy loss, the men also had reduced sperm mobility and morphology, compared to their peers.

The study of sperm began, unsurprisingly, in a fairly bizarre fashion. In 1677, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch tradesman and self-taught scientist who was fascinated with microscopes, collected his semen and examined it under a microscope, where he saw millions of tiny, wriggling shapes called animalcules (little animals) swimming in the fluid. He believed that each sperm contained a miniature, preformed human being that would unfurl and develop inside the mother after being nourished by the female egg.