Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection ("ICSI")

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection ("ICSI") is a relatively new treatment of severe male factor infertility. ICSI is indicated where the male partner has less than 10 million motile sperm per milliliter, where there is abnormal sperm morphology, sperm penetration, acrosomal reaction or repeated failure to fertilize partner's or donor's eggs in prior IVF attempts. ICSI might also be indicated in cases of egg defects, which limit or inhibit spontaneous fertilization in-vitro.

ICSI involves the injection of a single sperm in to a single egg in order to achieve fertilization to an embryo. The actual procedure involves micromanipulation in which a single sperm is captured in a microscopic glass pipette and meticulously injected into the cytoplasm of a single egg. Harvested eggs exhibiting proper maturity characteristics are selected to undergo this delicate procedure. Although we are able to use severely compromised semen samples; the laboratory still requires several normal appearing motile sperm for injection.

Sometimes ICSI is performed for egg factor issues—such as low ovarian reserve, where there are a low number of eggs or lower quality of eggs (or both).

Pregnancy rates for IVF with ICSI have been shown in some studies to be higher than for IVF without ICSI.