The early stages of fertility treatment in the UK are undergoing a transformation. A new care pathway introduced by a leading fertility clinic now allows both members of a couple to complete essential fertility tests at home prior to their first in-person consultation.
Avenues Clinic has formed an exclusive collaboration with Sapyen to incorporate home-based diagnostics into its patient process. The partnership brings together at-home semen analysis for men alongside Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) testing for women.
Through the clinic’s Reproductive Intelligence Review programme, couples can now carry out initial fertility testing from home and attend their first appointment with clinical data already available.
This approach is particularly beneficial for patients who travel from across the UK to receive treatment at Avenues. Many seek access to Fair IVF or clinics that do not impose strict BMI limits, and the new model reduces the need for multiple early-stage visits before treatment begins.
The move addresses a long-standing gap within fertility medicine. Male infertility plays a role in approximately half of all cases, yet testing for men has historically been less accessible and frequently delayed.
Men are often asked to provide samples at clinics under tight time constraints, which can complicate the process and contribute to delays. In many cases, male testing occurs later in the treatment journey, limiting the availability of complete diagnostic information at the start.
Under the revised system at Avenues, both partners complete their initial diagnostic tests at home. This adjustment significantly reduces the time needed to gather key medical insights and allows the first consultation to centre on treatment planning rather than initial assessment.
“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.”
Sapyen’s role in the model is enabled by its patent-pending sperm preservation technology. This stabilisation method keeps semen samples viable for up to 72 hours after collection, allowing them to be analysed accurately without the need for immediate clinic delivery.
“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.”
Doctors at Avenues believe the change will reshape the structure of early consultations. Patients will arrive with baseline test results already available, enabling more productive discussions and faster decision-making.
The approach also shifts the narrative around fertility care by framing infertility as a shared clinical matter from the outset. Male fertility testing becomes an integral part of the initial assessment rather than a later-stage investigation.
For patients, the benefits include quicker access to information, fewer unnecessary appointments and a clearer pathway towards treatment. For clinics, the model redirects valuable time and resources away from administrative processes and towards clinical care.
The redesign may appear subtle, but it fundamentally alters the starting point of fertility treatment.