Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

At times, there are not enough normal sperm to fertilize the eggs retrieved during an IVF cycle. Over the past several years, embryologists have developed a technique to catch a single sperm and inject it directly into an egg. Indications for ICSI include men with extremely low concentrations of sperm (less than 6 million motile sperm), men whose sperm have failed to fertilize eggs in previous cycles of IVF, and men with complete absence of sperm (azoospermia) who need the sperm to be retrieved directly from the testicle and then injected into the egg. In a good program with a high quality laboratory, the success rate should not be reduced when ICSI is required.