Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
ICSI is a means of achieving fertilisation in vitro by direct injection of a single sperm into each egg. It enables men with sperm problems to achieve fertilisation which would otherwise have been impossible or unlikely, and is one of the most important recent advances in Reproductive Medicine. In addition, men with almost complete failure of sperm production or a blockage can have sperm collected at source by a small operation, sufficient for ICSI.

Eggs are recovered from the woman and sperm collected from the man as for IVF. Then, under a microscope, a single live sperm is selected and injected into the fluid centre - or cytoplasm - of the egg using a hollow glass needle several times finer than a human hair. This carries the sperm through the protective coverings of the egg which it could not pass on its own.

Even in cases of men with very severe sperm problems, our results with ICSI are at least as successful as they are for IVF carried out in favourable cases.

 

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