A study on male infertility with the aim of developing non-hormonal contraceptive methods for women – Pro Contraception!

An international team, coordinated by researchers from our Reproduction.MS network and funded by the Gates Foundation, will advance the development of non-hormonal female contraceptives. As part of a study on male infertility, for the first time, the sperm – specifically their swimming behaviour and flagellar movement – from both fertile and infertile men will be directly compared using several novel analytical techniques on a large scale.

More than 200 million women worldwide have an unmet need for modern contraception, and many believe the key lies in targeting sperm. But after decades of overlooking the male role in fertility, we simply do not have the tools to test these potential advances.
The international research team will address this gap by developing and validating novel sperm assessments, and systematically examining the function of sperm from 1,000 fertile men who have naturally fathered children. In comparison, they will investigate the sperm of 1,000 men with unexplained infertility to identify differences in functional sperm parameters between fertile and infertile individuals which can then be used to test new concepts for female contraceptives.

"We are confident that the insights gained from this study will have the added benefit of significantly improving early diagnostics of male infertility and clinical care for affected couples."
Professor Timo Strünker from the Centre of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology (CeRA) of the University of Münster, spokesperson for the research consortium.

In fact, in about a third of infertile men, semen parameters remain within normal ranges. This condition, known as unexplained male infertility, involves functional defects of the sperm that cannot be detected through traditional semen analysis.
This will be the first time a direct comparison is made between fertile and infertile males with the most modern sperm-assessment tools at this scale. Participants will be recruited from all three countries, and the diversity provided across these populations should help ensure that results are widely applicable.

“A key new observation of sperm will be the detailed analysis of their tail beat using a new analytics software, 'FAST', developed in Birmingham. These tail beat patterns act like a "fitness test" of sperm capability.”
Dr. Meurig Gallagher, School of Medical Sciences, University of Birmingham.

Understanding the functional differences in sperm from fertile and infertile men shall inform drug discovery programs aimed at developing small molecules that specifically target sperm in the female reproductive tract, preventing the sperm from fertilizing the egg. Advancing such innovative, female-controlled, non-hormonal contraceptives is an important global concern.

The study started in 2025 and is expected to conclude within two years. It is coordinated by Timo Strünker, Sabine Kliesch, Christoph Brenker (Centre of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology, CeRA), and Frank Tüttelmann (Centre of Medical Genetics) at the University Hospital and University of Münster. It is conducted in collaboration with Sarah Martins da Silva, Zoe Johnston and Christopher Barratt from Ninewells Hospital and Medical School at the University of Dundee, as well as Jackson Kirkman-Brown (Centre for Human Reproductive Science) and Meurig Gallagher (Metabolism and Systems Science) at the University of Birmingham.