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.
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