Sperm Is a Focus of Start-Ups Looking to Boost Fertility

“Where is the we?” It’s the question that was the driving force for Vida Delrahim and Ronit Menashe when they created WeNatal, a new brand of prenatal supplements that aims to be more inclusive. In the process of trying to conceive, couples often use the word we. We’re trying to get pregnant. We’re having trouble conceiving. We’re having a baby. But, as Delrahim and Menashe realized after their own individual struggles to conceive, despite all the we, much of the burden of fertility optimization continues to fall on women. It’s an imbalance that WeNatal and a number of other start-ups are starting to address.

In the quest for high-quality embryos and viable pregnancies, sperm is critical, says Toronto-based reproductive endocrinologist Dan Nayot, who is chief medical advisor for fertility supplement company Bird&Be. And good sperm is about both quality and quantity. In a routine semen analysis, Nayot generally looks at the volume of semen (a combination of seminal fluid and sperm); sperm concentration (how many millions of sperm per millimeter); sperm motility (how many are actually moving...