Month: May 2015

As I mentioned before, I recently completed a sperm penetration assay. And wouldn’t you know it, I managed to impregnate a bunch of hamster eggs. OK, not really, but the results look good, and my sperm did indeed penetrate the eggs.

I’m not sure how to read this: did 309 sperm penetrate 20 eggs? or did 309 sperm go into the test, and 20 eggs were penetrated? (If you know, leave a comment)

The results are good, and I’m happy with that.

Oh, also my sperm concentration is 172 million/mL. I don’t mean to brag, but well, normal is somewhere around 20. So yeah, I’m bragging. Afford me these little wins, please.

On Wednesday this week, my sperm will be combined with hamster eggs in a laboratory.

No, I’m not making this up.

As if the barrage of tests weren’t bad enough; as if the awkwardness of telling your friends and family that you’re having fertility issues isn’t weird enough; I have to go and become a hamster daddy.

Well, not really. Technically the sperm don’t fertilize the eggs. But they do penetrate the eggs (hopefully).

All of this is part of a sperm penetration assay, otherwise known as Hamster zona-free ovum test. And it’s easily the weirdest thing I will do as part of this process. Maybe the weirdest thing I’ll ever do.

Did you know you can procure fresh hamster eggs in just 2 weeks?

And to top it all off, a successful test doesn’t guarantee anything!

The things we go through to have a kid.