ICSI
Couples with fertility issues have benefited from the ICSI treatments provided by Dr. Lane and her experienced team of fertility experts. Lane Fertility Institute has among the best fertility specialists in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
ICSI Q&A
What is an ICSI?
ICSI is an acronym for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This is the advanced form of in vitro fertilization where a single sperm is injected into the egg. This is a very effective method used to fertilize eggs in an in vitro fertilization laboratory once the eggs have been retrieved from the woman. Its primary use is to help with significant male infertility issues. ICIS is usually employed in situations where severe male factor infertility is an issue or in situations where traditional IVF is not successful. IVF with ICSI uses specialized micromanipulation tools and inverted microscopes which enable the doctor to choose and pick up individual sperm in a specially crafted ICSI needle. The needle is carefully inserted through the outer shell and membrane of the egg and then the sperm is injected inside the egg. This typically results in standard fertilization in about 75-85% of eggs. As with traditional IVF, the woman receives medications to produce multiple eggs and then the eggs are retrieved and fertilized outside of the womb.
How is ICSI performed?
The process is similar to traditional IVF in that the woman takes fertility drugs to stimulate her ovaries into producing excess eggs, which are harvested when they mature. Then each viable ovum is injected with a single sperm. This has a 78-85% success rate for fertilization and embryo production. An appropriate number of embryos are then inserted into the uterus, using the same technique as traditional IVF, and the patient is monitored for positive pregnancy test results. The pregnancy success rates for this process are similar to traditional IVF procedures.
What are the risks associated with ICSI?
There are a few risks associated with this process. For example, certain genetic and developmental defects have been found in children conceived via this method, however, these issues may have been caused by the underlying infertility of the couple, rather than the technique. There are concerns with male infertility issues being passed to male children, although there is not sufficient evidence to fully support this as the first ICSI procedures were only carried out in 1992, so until recently, the oldest male children had not reached sexual maturity. There is also an increased risk of miscarriage, as the technique uses sperm that would have otherwise not been able to fertilize and egg.
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