[imagesource:pexels]

Infertility affects approximately 7% of the male population, a staggering statistic that has spurred innovation in the field of reproductive medicine.

Male infertility remains a growing concern, with sperm counts reportedly declining by half over the past four decades. Various factors, including pollution, smoking, diet, lack of exercise and stress, are cited as contributors to this alarming trend.

Thankfully, with access to more advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, scientists are now able to strive for better efficiency when it comes to diagnosing and treating male infertility.

Dr. Steven Vasilescu and his team at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have developed an AI software, aptly named SpermSearch, that has the remarkable ability to identify sperm in samples taken from severely infertile men at a rate a thousand times faster than the human eye.

The AI software can highlight potentially viable sperm almost instantly, a task that can take a highly trained embryologist several hours to accomplish manually.

This groundbreaking technology is particularly beneficial for men suffering from non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), a condition in which they produce no sperm in their ejaculate.

Typically, these cases involve a surgical procedure to extract a small portion of the testes, which is then taken to a lab where an embryologist painstakingly searches for healthy sperm. This process is labor-intensive and can take several hours, increasing the risk of fatigue and inaccuracy.

But SpermSearch does just what its name suggest: lightning quick scientific results that pinpoint your lil swimmers. By immediately uploading photographs of the samples into the computer, the AI can swiftly locate any healthy sperm.

Dr. Vasilescu explains that SpermSearch fills in the gaps where humans fall short:

“It can highlight a potentially viable sperm before a human can even process what they’re looking at … When an embryologist looks down the microscope, what they see is just this complete mess – a starscape of cells. There’s blood and tissue. There might be only 10 sperm in the whole thing, but there can be millions of other cells. It’s a needle in a haystack.”

This incredible speed is achieved through extensive training, where the AI was exposed to thousands of images of sperm in complex tissue samples. Basically, SpermSearch was given a thorough lessons in what my non-science brain assumes are ‘Where’s Wally?’-style techniques. Now the AI can use these skills to take pressure off hard-working embryologists.

It’s a huge breakthrough that could change the lives of fathers-to-be across the world. Dr. Vasilescu does remind us, however, that the AI isn’t intended to replace embryologists but rather to serve as an assistive tool.

SpermSearch is currently in the proof-of-concept stage following a small trial with only seven patients. It typically takes between two and five years for something at this stage to become commercially available.

The UTS team is in the process of advancing to clinical trials, with the ultimate goal of achieving a live pregnancy as the next milestone in their groundbreaking research.

Making embryologists more efficient with potentially life-changing technology is well worth the wait.

[source:bbc]