ICSI Treatment In India

What is Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)?

Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection , commonly referred to as ICSI, is an advanced assisted reproductive technology used to treat certain causes of male infertility and to aid in fertilization during in vitro fertilization (IVF). ICSI is particularly beneficial when there are issues with the quantity, quality, or motility of the sperm, which may make it difficult for them to fertilize an egg naturally.

How Does the ICSI Procedure Work ?

1. Ovulation Stimulation: The woman undergoing IVF typically receives medication to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which are then monitored using ultrasound and hormone tests.
2. Egg Retrieval: When the eggs are mature, a minor surgical procedure is performed to retrieve them from the woman’s ovaries. This is usually done using a thin needle guided by ultrasound.
3. Sperm Collection: A semen sample is collected from the male partner or a sperm donor. In cases of severe male infertility, the sperm can be retrieved directly from the testicles using a surgical procedure called testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) or percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA).
4. Sperm Injection: A single sperm is selected from the collected sample and injected directly into the cytoplasm (the interior) of a mature egg using a micropipette. This technique ensures that the sperm fertilizes the egg, even if it has difficulty penetrating the egg’s outer layer.
5. Embryo Culture: Fertilized eggs are monitored for the development of embryos in a laboratory for a few days.
6. Embryo Transfer: One or more healthy embryos are selected for transfer into the woman’s uterus. This is typically done 3 to 5 days after the egg retrieval.

ICSI – Is It For Us?

Before making this crucial choice, the two of you should consider the following questions:

• Has the male partner’s sperm count been low?
• Is the sperm’s motility unusually low?
• Do the sperm cells have a healthy morphology?
• Has the male partner undergone vasectomy?
• Does the male partner have problems ejaculating or getting an erection?
• Does the male spouse suffer from diabetes, a spinal cord injury, or any other conditions that could interfere with reproduction?

What Are The Steps Leading Up To ICSI?

For women :

• The administration of fertility medications like gonadotrophin.
• Eggs are gathered.
• Collected eggs are fertilized at low temperature by injecting them with clean, healthy, and very potent sperm.
• Transfer of the embryo to the uterus.

For men:

• Sperm suitability for fertilizations is evaluated.
• Individual sperm cells are injected into the egg from a sample collected naturally if appropriate sperm is available.
• If not, sperm is immediately removed from the epydidymis using a tiny syringe (a narrow tube inside the scrotum). This approach is known as PESA (percutaneous epidydimal sperm aspiration). TESA, or testicular sperm aspiration, and TESE are further techniques.

What Are The ICSI Success Rates?

The success rates of more than 800 of these ICSI Procedures performed at Dr. Nandita Palshetkar‘s IVF facilities around India were estimated to be 40%, which is an injection of much-needed hope.