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Sperm racing is a real, venture-backed sport, complete with jumbotrons, betting, and a live crowd.

The game is a Trojan horse: It gets men to face a fertility situation most were taught to never question.

The race works because it smuggles fear past male defenses.

As I sat down on Sunday to read The New York Times Magazine, I was drawn to a story I thought I'd misread. What it involves is this: Under a microscope, on a tiny track, sperm samples race toward a finish line. There are commentators, a leader board, a jumbotron, investors, and a live crowd. What sounds like a joke has somehow become a venture-backed startup.

My first thought was: Why would anyone watch sperm race? My second was more of a real question: Why does this exist at all?

A Tale of Two Fertilities

Here's my hunch. Women are never allowed to forget their fertility. We're always reminded (with the help of apps) of our eggs, how to track them, how many we have in reserve, how to freeze them, and even grieve them. So, by the time many women reach a fertility clinic, they have been thinking about their eggs, or lack of them, in one way or another, for a number of years.

For men, it's the opposite. Their fertility is silent: no monthly reminder, no clock worth mentioning, and, for most men, sperm are not something they worry about, unless brought to their attention. It is something they assume.

What's Really at Stake

Ask a man to question his fertility and see what happens. Reactions range from puzzlement and bravado to a nervous shift in the seat, as suddenly things feel more uncomfortable. It's interpreted as a question about masculinity rather than a medical issue. That's because the attachment was never to sperm........

© Psychology Today