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 aย hamster daddy.
Well, not really. Technically the sperm don’t fertilize the eggs. But theyย do penetrate the eggs (hopefully).
All of this is part of a sperm penetration assay, otherwise known asย 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.