What is ICSI?

ICSI stands for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection. ICSI is not used for every infertility case, however there are many reasons that doctors decide to use ICSI, such as couples with severe male infertility that do not want donor sperm insemination, having previous IVF with no fertilization,  or a low rate of fertilization, and for couples that have a low yield of eggs at egg retrieval.

If your doctor does decide the ICSI is the best course of action, here is how it will work:

The mature egg is held with a specialized holding pipette. Then, a very delicate, sharp and hollow needle is used to immobilize and pick up a single sperm. This needle is then carefully inserted through the zona (shell of the egg) and into the center (cytoplasm) of the egg.The sperm is injected in the cytoplasm and the needle is removed. The eggs are checked the next morning for evidence of normal fertilization.

Most IVF programs see that about 70-85% of eggs injected using ICSI become fertilized.