[1] The primary application of the test is to diagnose male infertility caused by sperm unable to penetrate the ova.
[4] Although medical professionals often present the procedure as unable to create an embryo,[5] these claims are not technically correct.
If the human sperm succeeds in penetrating the hamster egg, a hybrid embryo is indeed created, known as a humster.
It was particularly useful in assessing the extent to which sperm from a potential donor could penetrate cervical mucus when artificial insemination was principally performed by ICI or IVI, rather than by IUI.
[11] However, a negative result on the hamster test correlates with a lower probability of the man's partner becoming pregnant.