In Vitro Fertilization with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, or ICSI, is a highly effective treatment for male factor infertility problems.
What is ICSI?
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection basically means injecting the sperm into the middle of the egg. It is an extremely effective way of fertilizing the eggs in the IVF lab after they have been retrieved from the woman.
In Vitro Fertilization and ICSI involves the use of highly specialized micromanipulation tools and equipment, plus inverted microscopes. This enables the embryologist to choose and pick up the individual sperm in a specially designed needle.
The needle is very carefully advanced through the outer shell of the female egg, as well as the egg membrane. At that point, the sperm is injected into the inner part, or cytoplasm, of the egg.
This procedure has a very high success rate, with normal fertilization occurring in about 75-85% of the eggs injected with sperm.
Prior to this procedure taking place, the female is given medications to stimulate her ovaries in order for a number of eggs to be retrieved.
Who is a Good Candidate for IVF with ICSI?
There really is no standardized set of criteria used to decide who gets this treatment and who doesn’t. Some fertility clinics will only use IVF with ICSI on severe male infertility cases, while others routinely use it with every IVF.
In general, most fertility clinics fall somewhere between those two extremes.
Here are some of the common reasons for using IVF with ICSI:
- Severe male factor infertility cases who do not want to use donor sperm
- Couples who are dealing with infertility due to poor sperm motility, low sperm count and/or poor sperm morphology
- Couples who have had previous IVF with no fertilization or a low rate of fertilization
- Couples who have had a low yield of eggs at egg retrieval. In this case, ICSI is used to try and get a higher percentage of eggs fertilized than with conventional insemination which involves mixing eggs and sperm together.
- Women with a low ovarian reserve of eggs may have IVF with ICSI.
In Vitro Fertilization with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection is an alternative treatment, and in some scenarios a better choice, than regular IVF.
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