ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection)
A subsidiary part or specialized form of In Vitro Fertilization, ICSI is used for the treatment of male infertility. A simple procedure of injecting a single live sperm into an egg is known as Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Followed by IVF, ICSI requires mature eggs from female partner and semen sample from male partner.
Embryologist separate live healthy moving sperm from the semen sample and after 2 to 3 hours of egg retrieval, he/she removes the outer coating of eggs to ensure that eggs are mature enough to undergo ICSI because immature eggs cannot be injected. With great precision, Embryologist inserts a needle holding sperm into the egg. These injected eggs are then placed in an incubator in laboratory overnight.
The technique is likely to be recommended in case of low sperm count and other male infertility factors including damaged or missing vas deferens and previous attempt of IVF failure.
ICSI require more handling and care than standard IVF, however during the procedure there is a very small chance that egg may be damaged resulting in non-viable egg. The woman’s age matter a lot for the success of ICSI and there is yet no convincing evidence regarding the birth defects in children born as a result of ICSI.
