Fertility care in the UK is beginning to change at the earliest stage of treatment. A new pathway introduced by a leading clinic now enables couples to complete key fertility tests from home before attending their first consultation.
Avenues Clinic has partnered exclusively with Sapyen to incorporate home-based diagnostic testing into its standard patient journey. The collaboration provides men with the option of completing semen analysis at home while women can undertake Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) testing outside the clinic environment.
Through Avenues’ Reproductive Intelligence Review programme, couples can carry out their initial fertility assessments together at home. By the time they attend their first consultation, important clinical insights are already available to guide discussions.
The system is particularly beneficial for patients travelling long distances to reach the clinic. Many individuals seek treatment options such as Fair IVF or prefer clinics without strict BMI restrictions, and the new process reduces the number of preliminary visits required before treatment begins.
The initiative also addresses a persistent imbalance within fertility medicine. Male infertility contributes to around half of all cases, yet diagnostic testing has traditionally focused more heavily on women and often takes place later in the treatment process.
Men frequently face time-sensitive requirements to provide samples in clinic settings, which can create logistical challenges. As a result, diagnostic information may be incomplete during early consultations, leading to delays and repeated appointments.
Under the updated pathway, both partners complete baseline fertility tests from home at the beginning of the process. This reduces the time needed to obtain key diagnostic information and allows the first clinic meeting to focus on clinical decisions rather than data collection.
“The fertility journey shouldn’t start with waiting rooms and logistics,” said Dr Cristina Hickman, CEO of Avenues Clinic. “It should start with understanding. Our Reproductive Intelligence Review allows couples to complete essential diagnostics from home so that when they arrive, the conversation focuses on decisions rather than discovery.”
The technology behind the process comes from Sapyen, which has developed a patent-pending sperm stabilisation method capable of preserving samples for up to 72 hours after collection. This allows accurate laboratory testing without requiring immediate transport to a clinic.
“Fertility outcomes suffer when the system delays information,” said Ash Ramachandran, CEO of Sapyen. “The question should never be why couples waited months to understand half the equation. Start with data. Reduce uncertainty early. Everything downstream improves.”
According to clinicians at Avenues, the shift could significantly reshape early fertility consultations. Patients arrive with baseline test results already available, allowing doctors to move more quickly into treatment planning and discussion.
The model also reframes fertility as a shared responsibility between partners from the outset. Male fertility testing becomes an integral component of the first stage rather than an additional investigation later in the process.
For patients, the outcome is a more efficient and evidence-led fertility journey with fewer delays and clinic visits. For healthcare providers, it represents a shift in how clinical time is used, allowing greater focus on treatment rather than logistics.
In effect, fertility care has been quietly redesigned at the moment when patients first begin seeking answers.