Just when we thought there was an app for everything.

New research published by Science Translational Medicine has revealed that, in the next few years, we could see the release of a new smartphone app, which will be able to test for male fertility, directly from their phone.

Pretty cool. Certainly alleviates the awkward trip to the clinic and subsequent chat with the doctor.

Infertility is still a huge global issue, with more than 45 million couples worldwide struggling to conceive, according to this fertility study. However, male infertility often holds arguably more of a social stigma, which has left many men feeling embarrassed and avoiding the clinic.

This latest app is set to help men monitor their fertility levels from the comfort of their own home. You may think this would set you back a whole lot of dosh, but no, the whole device doesn't cost very much to make, and there is the hope that it will retail for under £40.

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Science Translational Medicine

It's also simple enough for anyone to use. Firstly, you attach your phone to an external accessory that looks just like a phone case - subtle enough.

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Science Translational Medicine

You then insert a chip, filled with sperm sample into the device which aligns with your phone's camera. The app then monitors the sperms movement and calculates the data. Basically, it takes a sperm selfie.

During the study the product tested 350 semen specimens and had an impressive 98 per cent accuracy.

Dr. Hadi Shafiee, who led the study at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School told CNN, "This is going to be the first fully automated device to make infertility testing as simple as home pregnancy tests for women."

It's probably going to be a few years until we see the app IRL as it still has to go through FDA approval. However, this is a major stride in making male fertility treatment easier and cheaper in the near future.

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Sabrina Carder
When she's not writing about the latest fashion trends Sabrina can be found buying 90s items, drinking a single malt or being mistaken for her identical twin. She's also fluent in acronyms, JSYK.