Methods of evaluating fertility of an animal based on determination of a PGRMC1 characteristic that correlates with animal fertility. In one embodiment, a sample is obtained from an animal, a PGRMC1 characteristic is determined and compared to a baseline PGRMC1 characteristic, wherein a variation between the determined PGRMC1 characteristic and the baseline characteristic indicates a level of fertility of the animal. A PGRMC1 characteristic can be one or more of PGRMC1 expression, transcription, translation, amino acid sequence, nucleic acid sequence, post-translational modification, cell localization or tissue localization. A sample can be a cell sample, a tissue sample, a blood sample, a lymphocyte sample, an oocyte sample, or a sperm sample. The animal can be male or female. In one embodiment, a variation of PGRMC1 nucleic acid sequence indicates reduced fertility of the animal.
