With sperm counts widely reported to have declined by half over the past four decades, infertility remains a growing problem. Factors behind the drop in male fertility are reported to include everything from pollution and smoking, to poor diets, not getting enough exercise, and too much stress. Infertility affects 7% of the male population. Now artificial intelligence (AI) may be about to help solve the problem. The new technology has been designed to help men who have no sperm in their ejaculate at all, 10% of infertile men, a condition called non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Usually in these cases, a small portion of the testes is surgically removed, and taken to a lab, where an embryologist can manually search for healthy sperm. Can infertility in men be averted completely ?
