If your partner has male factor infertility, here’s some good news for getting pregnant. Using a procedure called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ICSI for short, your fertility specialist can inject your partner’s sperm directly into your egg for fertilization.
ICSI – a cutting-edge treatment
With ICSI, infertility problems are solved as the sperm goes straight to the egg. Sometimes, sperm have problems attaching to the egg and then pushing through the outer wall. Or there can be problems with sperm quantity or motility.
ICSI offers men with these common male factor fertility problems a solution that lets them conceive and have children.
ICSI fertility process
ICSI fertility treatment begins like traditional in vitro fertilization (IVF). Your partner provides a semen sample and your eggs are retrieved via a small needle when the timing of your cycle is right.
If your partner can’t produce a sperm sample or if there is a blockage, your doctor may use needle aspiration to get the sperm. Also, a needle aspiration may be used if your partner had a previous vasectomy and the reversal did not work.
During aspiration, a tiny needle is placed into the testes and the sperm are extracted. Your partner will be placed under anesthesia to avoid pain.
Doctors are able to obtain a good number of sperm with needle aspiration. If the procedure is unsuccessful or if your partner’s sperm count is very low, the doctor may perform a biopsy of the testicular tissue. Some amounts of sperm are usually found in this tissue.
Then, back in the laboratory, while holding a mature egg with a special tool, a single sperm will be injected directly into the cytoplasm (the center) of the egg using a small needle.
If successful, after about 3 to 5 days, the growing fertilized egg is placed into your uterus for implantation. After implantation, your doctor may prescribe some antibiotics or low-dose steroids to prevent infection.
The best candidates for ICSI fertility treatment
If your partner has male factor infertility, ICSI treatment may help you get pregnant. ICSI treatment may overcome common male factor problems including:
abnormally shaped sperm
sperm with motility problems
poor sperm quality
very low sperm count
sperm that have difficulty attaching to the egg
a blockage in the male’s reproductive tract that keep sperm from coming out
past vasectomy
Also, if traditional IVF has not worked, some doctors suggest trying ICSI even if your partner’s sperm are normal. IVF offers another option for difficult infertility cases.
Fertilizing the egg with ICSI
ICSI treatment results in a fertilized egg about 50 to 80 percent of the time. However, just because the egg gets fertilized, there is no guarantee that the egg will become an embryo. And, even if an embryo is formed, it may stop growing.
Are there side effects with ICSI?
ICSI may damage healthy eggs during the process. Also, there is a greater chance of multiple births with ICSI treatment. The incidence is the same as for IVF, with about a 30 to 35 percent risk for twins and a 5 to 10 percent risk for triplets or more.
With natural conception, low quality sperm are weeded as they cannot penetrate the egg’s outer wall. Yet natural selection doesn’t occur with ICSI fertility treatment. So, there is a greater chance that abnormal sperm can fertilize the egg, resulting in birth defects.
Some studies suggest evidence of an increased incidence of certain birth defects with ICSI. However, the risk of birth defects is minimal. Due to the fact that ICSI is a relatively new procedure, there is little known about the long-term side effects of the treatment.
The price tag of ICSI may be pretty steep, ranging from $10,000 to $17,000 per cycle. However, if you can afford ICSI, it provides you with a superb opportunity to have a child.
Sources: American Society of Reproductive Medicine. “Patient Fact Sheet: Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection.” Resolve: “The National Infertility Association: Micromanipulation Techniques.” American Pregnancy Association: “Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection: ICSI.” UrologyHealth.org:”Management of Male Infertility.”
