ICSI treatment

In vitro fertilization with microinjection is often called ICSI treatment. It is a method used when sperm quality is severely impaired or when the woman's eggs have not been fertilized with conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In short, ICSI treatment involves the person working in the laboratory taking one of the woman's eggs, capturing one of the man's sperm, drawing the sperm up into a hollow glass needle, inserting the needle through the egg shell and pushing the sperm into the egg. The egg is then allowed to rest and the day after fertilization, it can be seen whether it has divided and is ready and mature to be placed back into the woman's uterine cavity.

ICSI as a fertilization method is used in almost half of all cases where in vitro fertilization is performed.

Sometimes, if the sperm quality is borderline, we can do something called ICIV. That is, we take half and fertilize in the usual way (IVF) and half with microinjection (ICSI).

The chance of success with ICSI treatment has been shown to be as good as with regular IVF.