Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

What is ICSI?

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) – This special technique can be used in conjunction with an IVF cycle. It involves taking a single sperm and injecting it into an egg to form an embryo. This technology can facilitate embryo creation when the male partner has a very low sperm count.

IVF vs ICSI

Sometimes people ask what the difference is between IVF and ICSI. The processes are the same, except in IVF, a drop of concentrated semen is placed on each egg in the lab, and fertilisation takes place without further intervention. A high concentration of sperm is required for fertilisation to take place. In ICSI, each egg is individually injected with one sperm.

As only one sperm is required for ICSI fertilisation, it overcomes the problem of a low sperm count. In rare cases when there is no sperm in a man’s semen analysis, in some circumstances, a biopsy of the testes can be done to obtain a small number of sperm and use ICSI to fertilise eggs.