What Reddit thinks about sperm testing

Following my last post about sperm freezing, I thought it would be interesting to see what Reddit thinks about sperm TESTING.

Interesting that a lot of people recommended going directly to a clinic, even though one post shared this photo of doing it at a clinic!!!! THAT CHAIR HAS SEEN SOME THINGS

Those that did use a mail in semen analysis had a mixed bag. But you can tell that some people also used it incorrectly, like the below example of someone who went out drinking and took a hot bath, plus had shipping delays, then compared that to the results of a clinic analysis.

Some people did care about insurance coverage (for example, Legacy is covered for veterans, whereas I don’t believe Fellow or Yo are)

Others just wanted to make sure they had access to a doctor (which a new startup called Posterity Health offers, access to urologists)

Others said it was much better to be able to do it from home

Really interesting to see the perspectives below!

My experience with mail in Semen Analysis (self.maleinfertility)

I did my first test through Fellow (mail in service). Abstinence window was about 2.5 days. Sample was produced on a Tuesday morning at 8am, last ejaculation before that was Saturday night after a bit of over doing it drinking (first time I’d had a drink in 3 months plus, I rarely drink) while watching college football. didn’t drink enough water and slept like crap. Woke up and took a very hot bath on Sunday to “sweat it out”.
I sent the sample out 8m on Tuesday morning. My sample was delayed due to shipping issues and didn’t get to the lab until Thursday and was analyzed at 6:38 pm Thursday. That is a total of 58 hours after a less than ideal environment for producing a sample in the first place.
I DO NOT recommend mail in semen analysis. Go to a clinic. The one I did didn’t offer anything around PH, progressive motility, DNA Frag, antibodies. Too much doubt around accuracy, very limited scope of analysis and limited support around results.
My husband and I used fellow, 3 tests, all zero, as were his tests with his urologist. I love fellow they were amazing to work with and we appreciated the ability to do it from home.
We had 2 tests with fellow that had delivery issues and the samples couldn’t be read. But they sent us a new free one each time. When we got our first 0 result they sent us another one for free as well.
Fellow sucks . They screw up all the time

At home sperm analysis self.TryingForABaby

I would honestly just go to a clinic. My husbands was $150. He had the option to do his business at home then drop it off, but you’ve got at most an hour to do that before it’s not viable. My husband just did it at the clinic. It was uncomfortable experience, but of all the testing women have to do, he said it put it into perspective for him
We’re going to use Legacy at home kit. https://www.givelegacy.com
From what I can see it’s the best out right now. I have been researching for over a year. My husband had a vasectomy prior to us ever knowing each other. He got it reversed this yr and our insurance won’t over semen analyses. Also, he’s NOT going to the lab/clinic to give a sample if he can help it lol 😊
Out of curiosity did you have issues with tricare? My husband has been trying to get a SA for a couple months now. They keep giving him referrals so places that say they don’t have any information on him. It’s been a nightmare.
It’s frustrating. We were referred to ReproSource for the SA, but TRICARE is out of network. They recommended to us to find a urologist. SMH. It’s difficult to find fertility services in our area that accept TRICARE. It’s definitely a struggle. The rep was unable to locate fertility services near us. It’s such a hassle
A Mayan abdominal massage practitioner suggested this one to me – we haven’t used it yet, but in case it fits the bill: https://www.meetfellow.com/

What are the best at home sperm analysis tests? (self.predaddit)

I used fellow. https://www.meetfellow.com/ it’s one of the best. They will give you a lot of data including morphology . Some doctors offices actually send specimens to this lab. This was easy and all done by mail
We used the Yo Sperm test that actually gives you a video of your sperm cells, and does a better job of analyzing morphology and motility.

At home Male Fertility Test? (self.maleinfertility)

Fellow messed up our shipment twice claiming spilled sample and not receiving the delivery in time. I didn’t find out until I followed up and got the same canned response each time. It would’ve saved us two months to just go to the clinic – they’ll have to do your analysis anyway if you want to proceed with any kind of treatment.
We did fellow and it said zero sperm, then we went for a real SA which confirmed no sperm. It would have saved us the money of the fellow test (180 I think?) to just go through a doctor the first time around since if there are issues the doctor won’t go off your mail in kit anyway. That said, in our case it was accurate.

Has anyone tried these at home fertility tests? Does it line up with clinical tests? Is this a positive result? (i.redd.it)

I would look into a company like Legacy or Ro. You can do it at home but they test all of the semen parameters. You can also do an advanced DNA fragmentation test. This will give you a much deeper understanding of your fertility.

Best at home semen analysis test kit? (self.maleinfertility)

We did Legacy at home. But my OB ordered another one in a clinic for my husband. Maybe she should consider another OB? Also idk your age but it really can take 12 months and be completely healthy. Been there and super impatient it’s hard. But Legacy was pretty accurate to his in clinic one.
Did legacy- I’ve only done one other SA In a lab 3 months later after making lifestyle changes. All but morphology improved with the lab, how much of that is Legacy’s test results accuracy and how much is the lifestyle idk.
I will say overall the legacy experience was pretty solid with pretty solid communication and follow-up. Their customer service was solid and they included a follow-up with an RN.
What I would also suggest is just making a normal appointment with a urologist. Explain the situation and I would assume that the urologist would write a referral.
Another option is what I did which is use legacy and if legacy turns out suboptimal then go to a urologist- they’ll look at the suboptimal at home results and write a referral.
My number one and most important thing to say is no matter what you do. If you do any at home and if they are suboptimal do not freak out or worry. Make sure that before you concern yourself with an at home fault you talk to a urologist about the results.
That was my biggest mistake and one big regret. Getting the at home results without context and spiraling before I talked to a urologist who calmly explained it and next steps and reasons not to be alarmed .
Legacy is amazing highly recommend them.
Try to talk to your general doctor and get a referral from him. I did YoSperm and, while give you some broad info about potential concentration and motility, it’s not nearly enough… also for a good amount of $$.

At home sperm analysis self.TryingForABaby

I would honestly just go to a clinic. My husbands was $150. He had the option to do his business at home then drop it off, but you’ve got at most an hour to do that before it’s not viable. My husband just did it at the clinic. It was uncomfortable experience, but of all the testing women have to do, he said it put it into perspective for him
We’re going to use Legacy at home kit. https://www.givelegacy.com

Semen Analysis – Is this experience typical? self.TryingForABaby

My partner had to provide a sample at a clinic and they have a separate room set up with seating, tv, and videos. You can use your phone too if the media selection isn’t your type of entertainment. Are you being given the option of dropping the sample off at the corporate office within an hour or so after you produce it? Semen generally can survive for some time for the purpose of providing a sample and diagnosis.
Just here to let you know that you can do this all from home and avoid the awkward lab experience! Companies like Legacy were created so you can avoid the lab!

What Reddit thinks about sperm freezing

So exciting that we hit over 1,000 subscribers already! I love sharing this with you all!

To celebrate, here’s a cool post highlighting some of the Reddit posts talking about sperm freezing. It is an interesting mix of comments about whether you SHOULD freeze your sperm, as well as some views on Legacy and Fellow

Experiences with Legacy sperm freezing? (self.MtF)

I used them earlier this year and insurance covered it as out of network – which is nice but not exactly helpful since everything else I have is in-network.
Keep in mind that when you do withdraw, surrogacy and such generally requires very specific processes and paperwork. Legacy effectively meant to be used for those who will have a legal partner that will carry for them.
Would I do it again? Probably. If my specific circumstances allowed for it. I would have gotten fertility tests first. Legacy provides fertility tests with most of their kits.

I personally would freeze one kit per child I might want to have some day. In general, each vial can be used for one attempt at IUI, which is cheaper, but IUI’s success rates are relatively low, so you definitely would want more vials when possible.
Mail-in vs. in-person is a mixed bag. You will see a decline in motility when using a mail-in kit (approx. 0.4% per hour, and we target < 20 hours to get to our lab, so typically under 8%). If you’ve got healthy motility of >40% then you’ll still have plenty of motile sperm.
There’s also several studies showing that people producing sperm samples at home have 30% BETTER quality than in clinic, due to comfort, no time pressure, etc. So there are some pros and cons. If motility is the single most important thing to you, and you only plan on using IUI, you should do it at a clinic. But for most people, a mail-in kit works well and is lower price, less hassle, and tailored more to you — and we’ve worked with 25,000+ folks to test and freeze their sperm.

Freezing sperm – Will I have enough? self.queerception

It’s tough to figure out, there aren’t great guidelines out there about how many vials are ideal to store, and a lot of people will assume you can “always just do IVF” without acknowledging IVF’s tradeoffs in terms of high expense and invasiveness. The technology and success rates for IUI aren’t very different than they were 20 years ago; it often works but it can take a lot of tries, especially with frozen sperm. IVF success rates are definitely higher than they used to be, and can be successful even with very few sperm available, but it’s a challenging process. But IVF can also often result in freezing multiple embryos for future use, especially if the person producing the eggs doesn’t have fertility issues.

Has Anyone Frozen Their Sperm? (self.AskMenOver30)

Go to a urologist and get an actual sperm test with motility and morphology, not just counts. This will tell you how much “margin” you have as you age, as the impact is typically to motility and morphology rather than just counts. You can then decide whether to bank, it’s not that expensive and is a good “insurance policy” IMO.
If you feel it’s something you should do, then do it. Consult your doctor of course. Everyone’s life path is different.
For context, I had a vasectomy at 33 without having any children before and I did not freeze my sperm. Of course, I do not have children and do not want to be a father. So that’s me following my life path. You gotta follow yours.

Freezing Sperm? (self.MtF)

I went with Fellow. Entirely done online and by mail, discreet, and cost me $189 for the initial testing, and 140/year for storage. Also not super masculine-coded, which was a nice perk but not strictly necessary.

How many of you banked sperm before HRT? (self.asktransgender)

I did, with an internet company called Fellow (ie I mailed my sample, no in-person meetings). They included analysis and a year of storage for like $200 and then $100 per year after that. They ship you a kit and you ship the sample back to them. There’s a fee to retrieve your sample when you want to use it. I think they have good reviews but I really don’t know.
I got my HRT prescription but last minute decided to bank. My first sample was abysmal quality, so I decided to do another one quick, but then there was a shipping delay on their part because of a backlog, so I had to wait like a month to do it. I didn’t wait to see the results, I just took my first dose an hour after mailing the second sample. Luckily it was much higher quality. They split each sample into three vials, so I have three iffy vials and three okay ones.
I banked. I used Legacy. Everything was through the mail. I paid $1,000 over the course of 9 months for 8 vials stored, an STD test, and 5 years of storage up front. In 4 years, I can pay another $250 for another 5 years of storage.
I’ve heard of a couple of anecdotal success stories with legacy. I can’t confirm them but I did read them on reddit.
Legacy will allow you to transfer to an in person clinic. They’re literally just holding the sperm for you

Vasectomy and freezing sperm (self.Fencesitter)

Not going to comment on your strategy except to say that post vasectomy reversal the sperm quality can be poor so it can be harder to get pregnant, and with frozen sperm you only have so much – once it’s gone it’s gone. Even in normal circumstances it can take 6-12 cycles to get pregnant. I don’t know much about the quality of sperm once it’s been frozen but it’s something to look into.
Vasectomies are vastly considered “reversible” but you need to know that reversal is not always effective.

ELI5: why can we freeze sperm but not humans?(self.explainlikeimfive)

Freezing often isn’t inherently damaging if you can control the process–ice crystal formation is a huge concern, but doesn’t happen the same way during very rapid cooling for example. A lot of cells and even smaller organisms can survive the process under some conditions, sometimes even with minimal to no detectable permanent damage.
Controlling this process becomes harder the more you scale up. The feasibility threshold basically drops off once you hit the size of a mouse.

Freezing Sperm (self.MtF)

Haven’t made a withdrawal yet, but I was pretty happy with Legacy. One of my samples was delayed in shipping by fedex and tested very low. I contacted support, they responded pretty quick and shipped me a new kit at no cost.
The pricing at the local places I looked into was insane and everything was out of pocket only. I ended up using the Legacy “For Tomorrow” package as it was the only reasonable option for me. There are some discount codes that can be found on the internet if you look that will take $50 or so off. The website and process is very poorly designed in places but overall I was able to get through it. I think they are the best of the startups here. Beware the gotcha that you can only drop off the samples at certain FedEx Ship Center locations. I wouldn’t wait for a driver to pick them up. The back end appears to be a legit cryopreservation operation they are just buying access to. Your sample is split among two locations, a big advantage over some places that only store in one location. The biggest hidden catch to be aware of is that you will need a bunch of STD tests done. They try to downplay it, but it is critical if you want to use your stored sperm later. Its not a big deal for the storage, but you will likely need the proof you were clean at the time of the sample if you want to use it. I was able to get the STD testing thru my doctor and insurance. If you can’t, it is a significant out of pocket expense.

Did you guys freeze your sperm? (self.Vasectomy)

Do not get a vasectomy yet if you’re considering freezing your sperm because you might change your mind.
You’re not ready yet if you’re freezing sperm.
I freeze my sperm before vasectomy. No plans to use it but I’m happy that I have full control of my fertility for the price of $200 per year

Legacy Sperm Freezing vs. Fellow Sperm Freezing (July 2024)

OVERALL:

In comparing Legacy sperm freezing and Fellow sperm freezing, Legacy was the winner.

Legacy stood out to me most for their “multi-geography storage”, their credibility, the strength of their operations and for their overall pricing. The fact they are trusted by the US military, by big insurance companies, by big employers, all give me a lot of trust and confidence in them. I also thought their pricing was the best for someone who is interested in sperm freezing.

Fellow stood out by doing a great job of highlighting their clinical strength, the number of clinics they work with for semen analysis, increase in patient compliance and some of the studies they’ve done. It’s clear that for clinics, for example, the compliance of your patients goes up for a post-vasectomy semen analysis, and that is a big plus for their credibility.

STORAGE:

I’ve written about this before, but I love that Legacy divides your sample into two and stores it in different locations. They call this “multi geography storage”, while other companies (including Fellow) only do “single geography storage”.

I care about this stuff because if you read about the industry you can see some massive meltdowns, even at big name providers, like a Colorado clinic that got sued for destroying samples, or the 3,500 samples that got destroyed at a California fertility center and then had to pay $15,000,000 in damages to their patients.

This stuff HAPPENS and it’s RISKY! I love the idea that my sperm is stored in more than one location in case of accident.

PRICING:

Their pricing was simply better for long term storage, which I cared about.

I’m paying about $50 per year per sample per year at Legacy because I pre-paid for storage

I’m paying $145 per year per sample at Fellow, on a yearly basis

CREDIBILITY:

I care a lot about credibility and legitimacy. I think both companies did a good job here, in different ways.

For me, the fact that the Navy Seals freeze their sperm with Legacy goes a long way.

I love that they’re covered by insurance. I’ve said this before but they just seem like the largest, oldest, most trusted and most legitimate option. If they’re working with the US Military, that feels like a big checkmark of trust and approval.

I think if you ARE a clinic or WORKING with a clinic, Fellow is a great option. From what they have available on their website, it seems like they really focus on this area.

Fellow works with a lot of leading clinics which is great, like the Cleveland clinic, which is a well-known brand and a checkmark of trust and approval as well.

They have a lot of urologists on their board which I like. They’ve also published their own studies. That’s always great to see since it shows they care about validating what they do.

Hope this is helpful!!!!

Dadi vs Legacy Sperm Testing and Sperm Freezing (March 2022)

After my last post, I decided to do a head to head analysis of Legacy vs. Dadi vs. Sppare.me. I spent a lot of time digging into these companies (and others, like Cryochoice, which I didn’t cover) so please like and share the post if it was helpful to you! and thank you to everyone who has already reached out!

Conclusion: Legacy is a better choice than Dadi for most people

final scores:

LEGACY: 19/20

DADI: 15.5/20

Below I’ll explain the key things I was looking for and the score I gave each company.

NOTE: I updated my review in July 2021!! Legacy went up 1 point and Dadi went up 1 point as well! Last updated in March 2022 to add some new facts and figures. Note that Dadi is no longer an independent company, they sold to Ro. I may write a post about this later!

THIRD PARTY CREDIBILITY/TRUST.

what does the rest of the world think about these companies? have they been validated? are they just startups trying to take my money or can i trust them?

LEGACY: 5/5

i thought this was extremely clear to me. i did a lot of research on all of the companies and they were the best here. they were founded at harvard university, they won a bunch of international awards, they have a very strong team and very credible advisors. they did a really good job i thought of making that clear.

+1 for harvard

+1 for team and advisors

July 2021 update: I also like that they work directly with the Navy SEALs and are covered by insurance companies now, that’s pretty cool!

DADI: 3.5/5

i thought they did a good job overall. they seem to have really cool tech, and i loved their video showing how the kit is made and how it is used. i used their product and its a cool touch to have everything in one mechanism. it is clearly professionally designed.

i have heard of their advisors like jacques cohen and that seems like a big name in the male fertility world. i also found multiple articles about them, like in GQ or other big articles, so they clearly have some third party credibility.

what i didn’t like: they don’t have a team page which i’ve always found super strange (same with sppare.me). i sent the website to my bf and he was googling the company as well.

it turns out their ceo used to run a GIF company and has some gifs of him that do not super inspire confidence for a company that is testing and freezing my sperm…. !!!!

then lastly they have a ‘reviews’ section on the website but it seems fake?? they don’t seem like real reviews at all and i couldn’t find those reviews anywhere else online. so that just seemed kind of shady. why lie about something like that??

-0.5 for no team page and -0.5 for weird images of ceo online (see bottom)

+0.5 for good, well known advisors

-0.5 for fake reviews on website

July 2021 update: I like that they removed most of the obviously fake reviews and just put in media quotes and quotes from real people. I found them on Trustpilot but it seems that they’re having issues here now, maybe they’re out of kits, but their score was only 4.0/5.0 which doesn’t seem great. Overall, I’m giving Dadi an extra +0.5 points here

ANALYSIS QUALITY.

once i looked at what the rest of the world thought, i also wanted to do my own research. i thought both companies were good, but legacy was better.

LEGACY: 5/5

their semen analysis includes all the main factors (although not clear if they include ph or liquefaction, mine didn’t) and was basically the same as what i got from my clinic. this was a +1.

i liked that they gave an explanation of everything and i had someone to talk to throughout the whole process. customer service here was a +1

i think they have more room for improvement in how they visualize the results, so this was a -0.5. it was mostly text and i found their ‘client dashboard’ a little confusing to navigate while dadi made it extremely simple for me to understand and showed simple visuals of my scores.

cost of analysis only (incl morphology): $195

July 2021 update: I like that they totally overhauled their results and now include DNA Fragmentation which is super cool! I’ve updated this +0.5

DADI: 3.5/5

I didn’t like that you have to pay extra to get a full analysis, otherwise you only get volume, count, and concentration which don’t really mean much. they don’t test motility by default which is the most important thing to test for, so this was a -1.

You also don’t get a detailed analysis, you just get high level scores. on the one hand, it tells you almost everything you need to know but i feel more secure with all the details, same at as a clinic. this was a -0.5

they have a video of your sperm which is a +0.5 because it’s pretty cool!

Finally, you can’t choose to only do analysis, which was a -0.5 since you HAVE to have your sperm frozen. what if you don’t want to freeze it? someone e-mailed to tell me that if you only want analysis, and you e-mail them asking to cancel the freezing subscription immediately, they’ll just refund you the full amount you paid. it doesn’t make sense to me but thought I’d share….

Cost of analysis only (incl morphology): $199 + $99 = $300

July 2021 update: It seems they are testing motility by default now, although you still have to pay extra for morphology and access to nurses, which Legacy offers for free. So I want to add +0.5 points but I find their report so much less helpful than Legacy’s so I’m going to keep it as-is instead of adding and then removing 0.5 points. I just don’t think their report is particularly useful if you really want to know your sperm parameters!

FREEZING QUALITY.

this mattered a lot to me since i was planning on doing freezing, and probably for the next 5 or 10 years, so i wanted to know my sample would be safe.

LEGACY: 5/5

I liked everything legacy has when it comes to freezing. i spoke to someone on the phone and they walked me through the whole process, which i think is also on the website. they have really really good risk mitigation practices. they explained that when they finish the analysis, they put it into a short term freeze in preparation for shipping. then:

a few days later, they thaw a small amount to make sure it froze properly, and they then test the count and motility (and give you the results)
they ship it to their cryostorage facility in two shipments in case anything happens to one of the shipments (they told me their shipper hasnt had an issue since the 1980s)
then at the facility they divide your sperm into multiple tanks and locations which is really cool since it means even if there was a malfunction somewhere, your sperm is stored in more than one place

+1 for each and also +0.5 because they explained it to me so clearly

also you freeze 3-6 vials (they said it depends on how much sperm you produce in your ejaculation, i had 5 vials frozen)

July 2021 update: No change

DADI: 4/5

there’s nothing wrong with the way dadi freezes. they use a company that has been around for a long time called New England Cryogenic Center and it seems very reputable, the head of the clinic is one of their advisors and her name is dr. grace centola, she seems very qualified.

+1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing, so this means no risk during transportation

+0.5 because it seems to be a credible facility with a good track record

-1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing! since they can’t do any redundancy like legacy does

-0.5 because you freeze 3 vials no matter what, which is fine, but it just means you’ll probably get less vials than legacy.

July 2021 update: Added +0.5 because I think that I was a little harsh when giving them a -1 for not having redundancy for their clinic

PRICE

LEGACY: 4.0/5

I thought legacy’s pricing was fine but not as cheap as dadi’s. it costs $195 for the analysis and then you can buy 5 years of storage for $495.

-1.5 because their annual plan is more expensive than dadi ($145 vs. $99) and because on average, they are about 10% more expensive than dadi for long-term storage

+0.5 because they have a monthly option and because they don’t charge withdrawal fees

total cost:

6 months: $90

1 year: $145

2 years: $290 (145/year)

5 years: $495 ($99/year)

10 years: $1,000 ($100/year)

50 years: $4,000 ($80/year)

July 2021 update: They do now offer payment in instalments, so I removed my -0.5

DADI: 4.5/5

overall they have good pricing for storage and actually while they list the storage at $99/year you get a 10% discount if you prepay so really it’s more like $90, which is the rate i used for the calculations below

-0.5 because they have a $300 withdrawal fee

6 months: N/A

total cost:

1 year: $100 (included in the cost of your $200 analysis)

2 years: $190 ($95/year)

5 years: $450 ($90/year)

10 years: $900 ($90/year)

50 years: $4,500 ($90/year)

July 2021 update: They do now offer payment in instalments

overall:

Legacy is better than Dadi for sperm testing, especially if you want a detailed repot and care about things like morphology or DNA fragmentation.

Legacy is better than Dadi for QUALITY of sperm freezing, especially since they do all these additional tests and store your sperm in multiple locations

Dadi is better than Legacy for PRICE of sperm freezing, especially if you’re only freezing for a year or two. If you’re freezing for 5 or more years, they’re comparable, although Dadi will still be about 10% cheaper

July 2021 edit: It seems you can get sperm freezing for free with Legacy if you have insurance. I haven’t tried it myself so please let me know if it works for you!

Prologue:

July 2021 update: I thought these photos of the Dadi CEO were super funny but I think they were just distracting up top, so I moved them down here! I still think they’re really funny! But maybe not for someone who is handling your sperm……..

—

bonus content of dadi’s CEO tom smith

Legacy vs. Dadi fertility report comparison

What’s in a male fertility report or a semen analysis? A lot of you have asked me, and so I thought I’d show you a couple of the reports that I’ve received from Dadi and Legacy after I did sperm testing and sperm freezing!

Conclusion: I found Dadi’s report to be simpler and cleaner, while I found Legacy’s report to be more comprehensive and personalized. For sperm testing, I got significantly better value for money with Legacy.

As a result, I think that if you care about understanding your results then Legacy’s fertility report is a much better choice, whereas if you just care about making sure your results are OK/not OK then Dadi is fine.

Take a look at the differences below.

Legacy:

Legacy provided me with an 11-page report, covering:

My overall fertility assessment
A breakdown of each of my main factors and relevant resources
An explanation of the vials I had frozen (including post-thaw analysis)
DNA fragmentation analysis (I paid extra for this)
A personalized recommendation that had been
Links to additional resources
A detailed chart showing WHO values for semen analysis

I spent all this time taking screenshots until I realized Legacy has a sample report available on their website (although it wasn’t super intuitive to find). But you can see my report below anyway!

What I liked and didn’t like about Legacy’s fertility report:

Everything is super detailed and feels comprehensive. You can see your result, how it compares to the normal ranges, and an example of something you can do to improve your results (This made me feel better for morphology, where I was below the normal range)
It included post-freezing analysis. After they froze my sperm, they put it into 4 vials and then did a post-thaw analysis, which I think is amazing since it makes sure that I can use the sample in the future.
I could do DNA Fragmentation analysis. I’ve only seen this at Legacy, and this was just a super cool data point to have to help me understand if I had DNA damage in my sperm. I had to pay extra for this ($195), but they explained that this typically costs $300-$500 at a clinic since it’s an advanced analysis.
It included personalized recommendations. This is a really nice touch; in this case, I had round cells in my sample which I was able to research. I only got one recommendation, I don’t know how many you’d usually get.
It included complimentary access to fertility experts. I was able to speak with their Chief Medical Officer (!) Dr. Ramy Abou Ghayda, who was amazing and walked me through everything, at no cost. They also offered to send me a 2nd kit free of charge if I was worried about anything.
It felt very busy and I didn’t know where to focus. There is so much content on every page that it’s a lot of material to absorb, understand, and process. While I feel like I got my money’s worth and more, I think they could learn from how simply and cleanly Dadi presents their information.

What I liked and didn’t like about Dadi’s fertility report:

Dadi provided me with a web-based results that was about 1 page of content.

Dadi’s fertility analysis was cleaner (I like their colours), but also much simpler. They’re very focused on freezing, so the analysis almost feels like an afterthought.

The report is very simple. In my case, I got 4 numbers without much context. I couldn’t really understand if these were good or bad results without further research.
They froze 3 vials, which is nice, but they showed me “pre-freeze motile sperm”, so I wasn’t sure what that number looks like “post-freeze”. I really appreciated that Legacy offered that.
Sperm video. Although mine wasn’t showing for some reason, I like that they usually show you a video of your sperm. You can actually see it on their website here, around halfway down.
They told me I was “good to go”, which was reassuring, although again, I didn’t really know if my numbers were good or bad! Even in their ‘detailed report’, my numbers seemed pretty low across the board according to their WHO percentiles so it didn’t really feel like I was super good to go.
They make it easy to freeze. I liked that they offered discounts for additional years of storage, although they only freeze your vials in one location (New England Cryogenic Center in Marlborough, MA)
No morphology analysis. Here, I didn’t pay the extra $99 that would have gotten me morphology analysis as well as access to nurses.
Nothing complimentary! I was a little bummed that I would have to pay more money for access to their specialists.

How do Legacy and Dadi compare to a traditional semen analysis?

I’m not finding my old semen analysis that I got done locally, but here’s more or less what my report looked like. Needless to say these are a BIG step up from getting it at a local clinic! I remember I had to wait about 3 days for my results, and getting someone on the phone was a pain. Plus, the inconvenience of having to go to a clinic to test was NOT ideal!!

Is Dadikit legit? What’s going wrong?

Is Dadikit legit?

I get messages about once a week from folks writing in with sperm tips!! Thank you all for sending them in!! I thought this one was super interesting as it seems like there’s a big issue with one of the players in this space. Three people wrote in to me over the past two weeks because they were unhappy customers.

And so I checked it out, and here’s what I found:

I guess people aren’t happy, seems to be big issues with delivery times. I haven’t experienced it myself (I tried their kit a few months ago) but maybe it’s time to try placing another order!

What’s new in the world of male fertility?

Message me if you have any cool updates or new products that are worth sharing! Any new companies in the space? Anything I should check out or try for myself?

Josh

Plume: Gender affirming hormone therapy

Someone sent me a link to their website yesterday evening after I talked about coming to terms with my sexuality, and I LOVED this website, Plume!!

Affirming your gender with HRT

This is ALL about helping trans-gender men and trans-gender women affirm their gender with easy access to hormone therapy. I have so many trans friends who would love a service like this. I haven’t used it myself but I think this is really worth checking out for anyone who.

They talked a lot about using a secure, encrypted communication app to keep your sensitive medical information private and secure. You can communicate through text, phone, or video chat depending on what you prefer.

Can HRT permanently impair your fertility?

For obvious reasons, you should be freezing your sperm with Legacy or similar before you start HRT. I was reading about this a few days ago, and there’s always a risk that you might not be able to have biological kids after you’ve been on HRT for a certain period of time. So yes, HRT can permanently impair your fertility.

It costs $99/month which seems super reasonable. They also have a letter writing service for $150 which makes SO much sense.

Have you used it? What did you think?

BTW, there is zero commission or affiliate or anything like that, like with everything else, I just find it amazing the kind of work these people are doing!

Legacy vs. Sppare.me Sperm Testing & Freezing

this is part of a series where i do head to head analyses of three mail-in sperm companies: legacy, dadi, and sppare.me. this is part 3 of 3!

Conclusion: Legacy is consistently better than Sppare.me overall

final scores:

LEGACY: 18/20

SPPARE.ME: 13.5/20

below i’ll explain the key things i was looking for and the score i gave each company:

THIRD PARTY CREDIBILITY/TRUST.

what does the rest of the world think about these companies? have they been validated? are they just startups trying to take my money or can i trust them?

LEGACY: 5/5

+1 for harvard

+1 for team and advisors

SPPARE.ME: 2.5/5

i don’t think they do a good job here at all. they don’t have a team page, i don’t recognize anyone on their website, as far as i can tell they haven’t been in the news or have any sort of international recognition. they list 3 advisors on their page but no team which i find extremely strange and not very trustworthy.

-1 for no team page

-1.5 for no brand names i recognized and they they don’t have any sort of recognition anywhere

+0.5 because they seem to have been around since 2016 or 2017

ANALYSIS QUALITY.

once i looked at what the rest of the world thought, i also wanted to do my own research. i thought both companies were good, but sppare.me was better.

LEGACY: 4.5/5

their semen analysis includes all the main factors (although not clear if they include ph or liquefaction, mine didn’t) and was basically the same as what i got from my clinic. this was a +1.

i liked that they gave an explanation of everything and i had someone to talk to throughout the whole process. customer service here was a +1

i think they have more room for improvement in how they visualize the results, so this was a -0.5. it was mostly text and i found their ‘client dashboard’ a little confusing to navigate.

cost of analysis only: $195

SPPARE.ME: 4.5/5

+1 because their semen analysis includes most the main factors (excluding morphology, which is available for an extra $100) and is the same as what you’d get at a clinic.

+1 because their customer service is overall good and i thought their website explanations were good as well.

-0.5 because they didn’t do a great job of explaining everything on the results and so it still felt exactly like when i had to call my doctor at the fertility clinic here and ask them to walk me through my results

cost of analysis only: $250 + $100 for the morphology report = $350

FREEZING QUALITY.

this mattered a lot to me since i was planning on doing freezing, and probably for the next 5 or 10 years, so i wanted to know my sample would be safe.

LEGACY: 5/5

i liked everything legacy has when it comes to freezing. i spoke to someone on the phone and they walked me through the whole process, which i think is also on the website. they have really really good risk mitigation practices. they explained that when they finish the analysis, they put it into a short term freeze in preparation for shipping. then:

a few days later, they thaw a small amount to make sure it froze properly, and they then test the count and motility (and give you the results)
they ship it to their cryostorage facility in two shipments in case anything happens to one of the shipments (they told me their shipper hasnt had an issue since the 1980s)
then at the facility they divide your sperm into multiple tanks and locations which is really cool since it means even if there was a malfunction somewhere, your sperm is stored in more than one place

+1 for each and also +0.5 because they explained it to me so clearly

also you freeze 3-6 vials (they said it depends on how much sperm you produce in your ejaculation, i had 5 vials frozen)

SPPARE.ME: 3.5/5

in general, it feels almost identical to dadi. they work with the Diamond Institute in new jersey, which seems like a credible facility with a trustworthy history.

+1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing, so this means no risk during transportation

+0.5 because it seems to be a credible facility with a good track record (50+ years in operation)

-1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing! since they can’t do any redundancy like legacy does

+0.5 because you get 3-6, which is same as legacy and more than dadi

-0.5 because they require you to submit an std test which is annoying and not needed at other companies

PRICE

LEGACY: 3.5/5

i thought legacy’s pricing was fine. it costs $200 for the analysis and then you can buy 5 years of storage for $500.

-1.5 because there are cheaper options out there

+0.5 because they have a monthly option and because they don’t charge withdrawal fees

-0.5 because there’s no option to pay in installments (sppare.me does this)

total cost:

6 months: $90

1 year: $150

2 years: $300

5 years: $500 ($100/year)

10 years: $1,000 ($100/year)

50 years: $4,000 ($80/year)

SPPARE.ME: 3/5

overall their prices are OK at $125-$130 per year but are consistently more expensive than legacy.

-1 because they are consistently more expensive than legacy

+1 because they offer the option to pay in installments (and are the only ones to offer this) and because there aren’t any withdrawal fees

they also have inconsistent pricing… why is 10 years more expensive on a yearly basis than 5 years?!

total cost:

6 months: N/A

1 year: $145 (1st year included in the cost of your $250 analysis)

2 years: $290 ($145/year)

5 years: $635 ($127/year)

10 years: $1,340 ($134/year)

50 years: $6,350 ($127/year if you renew every 5 years)

overall:

legacy is better than sppare.me for price and quality of sperm analysis

legacy is better than sppare.me for price and quality of sperm freezing

what else should I try?

it’s been almost a almost year since i first started the site!! thanks to everyone who has been reading through. this has been fun, and i don’t want to stop just because i’ve tried most of the kits. there are lots more i haven’t tried yet like:

-“Fellow” (although i like their website!)

-reprotech ” OverNite Male™ At Home Sperm Collection Kit

-sperm bank california “@Home Sperm Freezing Kit”

-The NextGen Home Sperm Banking Kit (american pregnancy / cleveland clinic)

what do you think? what else am i missing??