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!!

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

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

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

Dadi vs. Sppare.me Sperm Testing & Sperm Freezing

this is part 2 of my head to head analyses of legacy, dadi, and sppare.me!

Conclusion: Dadi is better than Sppare.me overall, especially on price of storage

final scores:

SPPARE.ME: 13.5/20

DADI: 14.5/20

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?

SPPARE.ME: 2.5/5

-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

DADI: 3/5

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

+0.5 for good advisors

-1 for fake reviews on website

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.

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.

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

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 kind of 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?

cost of analysis only: $199 + $99 = $300

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.

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

DADI: 3.5/5

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 (several decades 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 freeze 3 vials no matter what, which is fine, but it just means you’ll probably get less vials than legacy.

PRICE

SPPARE.ME: 3/5

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

-1 because they are consistently more expensive than dadi

+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)

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 don’t have monthly options and because they have a $300 withdrawal fee

total cost:

6 months: N/A

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

2 years: $190

5 years: $450

10 years: $900

50 years: $4,500

overall:

sppare.me is about the same as dadi for price of sperm analysis

sppare.me is better than dadi for quality of sperm analysis

sppare.me is about the same as dadi for quality of sperm freezing

dadi is consistently better than sppare.me for price of sperm freezing

experience 5: legacy sperm testing and sperm freezing at home kit

ok, so i wanted to make sure i tested out all the kits that i could find! there are a few others but i think this is probably enough for now. so i saw a few articles talking about legacy and decided to give it a try. here are my thoughts below:

overall:

i LOVED legacy!!!! by far the best experience i’ve had so far. super fast, super easy, great results, great quality, at the same price point as other products. i don’t think they do a good enough job explaining why they are better than other products because it wasn’t clear to me until i actually went through the process.

something i hadn’t considered is that they offer an FSA product! so i actually got it for free through my employer before the end of the year and you probably could do it using FSA/HSA as well. not sure if other companies offer this.

and this seems to be the only company that actually lists their team – you can tell these guys (and gals!) are super legit

price: $195 + $145 for storage

pros:

-loved the website, the kit etc. felt very high end with an unboxing experience like i was buying an apple product… for sperm lollll. i posted a fancy photo in addition to the unboxing photos.

– really good analysis, they test for everything (volume count concentration motility morphology), and they even give you personalized recommendations

-super responsive customer service. i had my own client service advisor who i called and e-mailed!! thank you davide!

-the company is super legit. they started at harvard and won a bunch of awards

-i got the kit in 12 hours! and fedex actually came to pick up and drop off my kit, so i didn’t have to go anywhere like i did with other products

cons:

-the user log-in experience is a bit weird, they give you a CLIENTID which is supposed to keep you anonymous but i kept forgetting it and having to look it up. the online user experience is a bit clunky

-i love the look and feel of the product but it feels a little bit impersonal… also the inside of the box also didn’t feel as premium as the outside which was surprising.

– i found the concept of ‘multi geography storage’ a little confusing but i guess it’s a good thing. it also seems like they store ‘up to 6’ vials which is more than others (i got 5). but i’m not exactly sure how that works compared to other companies.. overall i don’t think they communicate as clearly as others

but overall the best i’ve had so far. if you have other recommendations please send them my way!!! i now have my sperm frozen in 3 different places lolll

experience 3: trying a mail in sperm freezing kit (sppare me)

ok so now that i had tried a test at home, i learned more and started googling options to actually try a mail in kit. the cool thing about this is they are not super expensive, you get an analysis done at a clinic and then you can choose to freeze your sperm.

it felt like these guys (or gals?) really understand their target market. they even list out their ‘focus groups’ like cancer patients, steroid users, hair loss treatments etc which is cool.

one weird thing is they required me to get an std test. i had done one a few months ago but it had to be within 45 days so i had to get it done AGAIN which was annoying.

it was also kind of shady that they listed advisors but no team… i want to know who is handling my data and my sperm, you know? when i looked up my doctor (matan yemini) he seemed ok

cost: $250 and then $145 per year for storage

overall:

-not bad! i liked these guys. it felt like i had a mini clinic at home

-they required me to do an std test!!

-more expensive than other mail in options

pros:

-they offer financing, which i took advantage of (just curious!)

-they include a year of storage for you

-you can mail it in from home

cons:

-pricing is ok but i found cheaper options

-packaging was honestly pretty confusing

-they have sperm all over their website lollll

-why do they list an advisory board but no team????

experience 2: trying a test at home (Yo!)

so i figured, ok, are there any options that i can do at home or from home? this seems to be a big trend with all the genetic testing, hormone testing, all the hims ads im seeing.. so I googled ‘sperm testing at home’

i did some research and i found a couple of companies that i liked. there was one called ‘spermcheck’ that seemed kind of shady. my favourite was a company called YO! loved the name!! here’s the site: https://www.yospermtest.com/

i was a little weirded out about the fact that you have to attach something to your phone and then analyze your sperm, but they promised that i wasn’t going to have sperm all over my phone.

they said it wasn’t compatible with my iphone X max but it does work on a regular iphone x which was fine since i still had my old one.

it cost me $75 including shipping and taxes

overall:

-the experience was generally not bad. they have clear instructions for what to do although i kept feeling worried that i was going to spill everything everywhere!!

-the results were ok but not super useful. i did not feel like i really got a fertility test.

-they show you a video of your sperm is cool but… idk, whats the point? its not really telling me anything

pros:

-cheap

-although it took a few days to ship, i was able to do it at home

-straightforward

-you get a video of your sperm

cons:

-did not feel like a really good analysis, it felt shallow… so whats the point?

-this is stupid but i realized afterwards that i (obviously) can’t freeze my sperm if i’m using an at home test like yo… so not that useful in the end!

-you have to attach a device to your phone (not that big a deal)

this was the box i received. im not able to rotate the image but you get the picture!