Life
This App Now Tracks Male Fertility
Nearly one in eight couples have problems with getting pregnant. Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system that impairs the body's ability to reproduce, and is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sex. Although only one-third of infertility problems are attributed to the female, women tend to bring the most attention to reproductive issues. But that’s starting to change since the “fertility hacking app,” Glow, added a feature for male fertility. The essential new feature supports and addresses issues dealing with male fertility. After all, it takes two to make a baby.
Glow was launched in May 2013 as a reproductive health app, which offers women support during their journey to parenthood. The app includes a fertility calendar, a daily health log, daily health tips, period trackers, and a community of others also on their journeys to parenthood. But as CEO, Michael Huang, told Wired, there’s definitely an unmet need in reproductive support.
“Men’s reproductive health plays an equal role when a couple is trying to conceive. We believe men, just like women, can benefit from a deeper understanding.”
In fact, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, in approximately 40 percent of infertile couples, the male is either the sole cause of a contributing cause of infertility. However, men are less likely to go to a doctor for their fertility issues than women.
Similar to their lady counterparts, male users of Glow can keep daily logs to track their overall reproductive health. From there, the app will customize fertility related information to the user. For example, if a guy indicates that he smokes, the app will send messages saying that those who smoke have a greater chance of having fertility issues than those who do not.
Glow assures that all their information tidbits are legit, since everything comes from peer-reviewed journals, research organizations, and science blogs. Men are also given a community of support where they have access to forums and can ask questions in confidence. To bring it all together, both partners have the opportunity to link their accounts together in order to track information like menstrual cycles.
Huang sees Glow as a data science company. The more users they get, the more information they can collect on reproductive health. They hope to provide the information collected to medical researchers, in order to update their studies on human reproductive health. Currently, the app has helped more than 50,000 pregnancies and is free.
