BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Legacy, the leading digital male fertility clinic, today announced it will partner with the Green Beret Foundation to provide active duty Green Berets with fundamental fertility services including sperm testing and freezing, for free. As these Special Forces soldiers embark on dangerous training and deployments, the partnership between Legacy and the Green Beret Foundation will provide the most accurate baseline fertility assessment and a genetic insurance policy, protecting their ability to have children in the future.
This announcement comes as recent data from Blue Star Families suggests that 67% of military members report challenges with family building, including a lack of medical coverage for fertility-related treatments. While 1 in 6 people in America face infertility challenges, military members are two times more likely to experience infertility due to unsustainable operational tempo (OPTEMPO), injuries, and toxic exposures. With this partnership, Green Berets will have the opportunity to have their sperm analyzed and cryogenically stored to be used at a later time.
“We know that historically service-related impacts on fertility have been difficult to prove. With a clear baseline and healthiest sperm stored, we believe these family building challenges can be prevented,” said Khaled Kteily, Founder and CEO of Legacy. “By combining forces, Legacy and the Green Beret Foundation are able to provide sperm testing and freezing for 25,000 active duty service members assigned to 1st Special Forces Command to help them have children on their terms and timeline.”
“Our mission at the Green Beret Foundation is to provide Green Berets with ongoing support, and connect them with the right resources to prosper and thrive. Working with Legacy solves a critical gap in military family building for these soldiers,” said Brent Cooper, Executive Director of the Green Beret Foundation. “We are already seeing strong interest from our members. One spouse just used Legacy to freeze her husband’s sperm 48 hours before deployment, and is now going through with IVF while he’s away.”
Legacy offers the most accurate, clinical-grade semen analysis from home. In addition to an advanced sperm analysis, Green Berets can store up to 4 vials of their sperm in two separate world-class labs across the country for free for a full year. Everyone who tests their sperm will receive their results within 24 hours of sample collection along with personalized sperm improvement and lifestyle recommendations for improving fertility based on over 100 data points, including nutrition, exercise, and medical history.
“Sperm is a biomarker of overall health, an important indicator of military readiness. All special operators have their blood, heart, vision, hearing, physical fitness, and mental aptitude tested - among others - and sperm should be another one of those baseline parameters,” said John Crowley, Head of Military Affairs at Legacy. “Green Berets have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. This partnership will provide U.S. Army Special Forces families with peace of mind while serving our country.”
This partnership expands Legacy’s commitment to solve fertility challenges faced by military families. Legacy currently partners with Military Family Building Coalition to offer members of Naval Special Warfare free access to Legacy’s at-home sperm testing and one year of cryopreservation. Legacy is also the digital fertility clinic of choice for Operation Baby and Veterans Advantage.
To learn more about Legacy’s work with the military, visit givelegacy.com/military.
About Give Legacy, Inc.
Give Legacy, Inc. aims to humanize the path to parenthood by giving customers the ability to engage in sperm analysis, DNA fragmentation, sperm freezing, and STI testing all from their home. Legacy is the largest male fertility clinic by volume in North America, testing and freezing more sperm than any other clinic, and is trusted by tens of thousands to improve their sperm health. Founded in 2018 out of the Harvard Innovation Labs, Legacy is a Y-Combinator backed startup with leading investors including Bain Capital Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Section 32, TQ Ventures, Tribe Capital, and celebrity investors including Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Orlando Bloom and DJ Khaled. Legacy offers services to leading organizations including Naval Special Warfare, the Green Beret Foundation, and Memorial Sloan Kettering, among others, and the company is the preferred male fertility partner to benefits providers Progyny, Maven, Carrot, Kindbody and others. For more information visit givelegacy.com.
About Green Beret Foundation
The Green Beret Foundation (GBF) provides all generations of U.S. Army Special Forces Soldiers and their families with emergency, immediate, and ongoing support. GBF assists over 5,000 Special Forces families each year. Since its inception in 2009, GBF has invested 85%, or 85 cents of every dollar, into its programs and services, which has totaled to over $16 million that has directly supported the Regiment and its families. GBF is the only nonprofit solely dedicated to supporting Green Berets and their families that has achieved a 4-Star Rating with Charity Navigator. Also, GBF is the sole special operations nonprofit accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of preparing, filing, and appealing of disability claims. For more information visit https://greenberetfoundation.org.
