Mail-in semen analyses improve compliance, accelerate fertility treatment process

Key takeaways:

• A mail-in test kit improved time to completion of semen analysis for male partners from a safety net hospital.
• Mean days to completion was 14.4 days after provision of the mail-in semen analysis kit.

DENVER — Providing mail-in testing for infertility workup improved time to completion of semen analysis compared with traditional testing in a fertility clinic, according to data presented at the ASRM Scientific Congress & Expo.

“The compliance currently with a semen analysis testing is very low, especially in our safety net hospital system. We need to be looking for other options for our patients to help improve their access to care,” Kimberly Yau, MD, reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellow at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, told Healio. “The study was very successful in showing that mail-in semen analysis testing is a great option and increases both the compliance and the time to completion of the semen analysis.”

Yau and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial with 14 reproductive-age women and their partners who underwent initial evaluation for infertility in the reproductive endocrinology and infertility clinic at a safety net hospital between February and April 2024. All male partners had not yet completed semen analysis as testing was not available through the hospital system and had to be outsourced. Researchers randomly assigned couples to the intervention group (n = 7), providing a mail-in semen analysis test kit to purchase, or the control group (n = 7), providing a list of fertility clinics where partners could make an appointment to complete the semen analysis.

Researchers calculated time to infertility workup completion from the day of semen analysis resource distribution to the day of collection for both groups.

Mean days since mail-in semen analysis kit distribution to time of data analysis was 48.9 days for couples in the intervention group and 43.3 days from clinic list distribution to time of data analysis for couples in the control group. Among men in the intervention group, 71% completed a semen analysis compared with no couples from the control group (P < .001).

“It was good to see in the data what we have seen clinically, which is that very few of our patients complete the semen analysis,” Yau told Healio. “During a 6-month study period, only one partner in the control group ... was able to complete a semen analysis, as opposed to eight out of 10 in the other group.”

After receiving a mail-in semen analysis kits, men completed tests within a mean of 14.4 days.

“I would love to see this offered as another option for many of our patients,” Yau told Healio. “Even at IVF clinics, it can sometimes be a burden for male partners to come in and provide a sample for semen analysis. Having this [mail-in test] as an additional tool in the toolbox can improving access to care for all of our patients.”