What Can You Expect From Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)?

There are many reasons leading to infertility, but one of the main causes is the inability of the sperm to fertilize an egg. This is caused by defective sperms and could be due to low sperm count, poor motility, and poor morphology etc. There are multiple reasons for this, and even smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc. could be reasons. Many technical advancements in fertility treatments are happened.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) improves the rate of fertilization in that the sperm is directly injected into the egg. The environment of this artificial fertilization is completely controlled, and the fertilized egg is then placed into the womb for further growth. It is one of the recent methods of improving fertility, a part of ART (assisted reproductive technology). 

Indications: 

1. Low sperm count, poor sperm motility 
2. Poor sperm morphology azoospermia ( zero sperm count ) - in which sperm extracted from testis by small surgical method. 
3. Ejaculation issues, such as retrograde ejaculation (semen is ejected into the bladder) 
4. Useful in couples who have failed IVF. 

What to expect? 
The following outlines some of the steps for both male and female before and during the procedure. 

Before the procedure - males: 

1. First step is the sperm collection; a screening is first done 
2. Sperms collection happens through either masturbation or directly from the testicles via a small incision 
3. Sperms could be collected fresh or collected and frozen for later use 

Before the procedure – women: 

In the normal menstrual cycle, only a single egg is released. However, prior to ICSI, the woman is given hormonal injection. This ensures multiple eggs are develop, which are then retrieved between 35-36 hours after trigger injection under general anaesthesia. 

During the procedure - How ICSI happens: 
A healthy egg is chosen and placed in petri dis and under magnification a good quality live sperm is selected and injected into egg. Fertilised eggs grown in incubators. Incubator is special instrument to give special environment for growth of embryos. Selected one or two good quality embryo were transferred back womb. Rest of good quality embryo were frozen at -196'C , that can be used for next attempt if first attempt not successful or planning for second baby after 2-5 years. The success rate for this procedure is quite high as the fertilization rate is almost 80 - 85 %