ICSI

DR. MICHAEL VERMESH: ICSI or Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection is a process whereby a single sperm at the zone is gently inserted into a woman's egg under the microscope using a micromanipulator, which is a device that has been in existence for a very short period of time, and exemplifies the high level of expertise required by the laboratory staff. The process of ICSI or Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection involves micromanipulation using very advanced equipment that has only been around for the past 20 years. This is one of the finest methods of - - in medicine and requires a great deal of expertise on the part of a person in the lab called Embryologist. We are able to take very few sperm from men, including aspirating sperm from their testicles if they are unable to produce the sperm naturally or if they had undergone vasectomy in the past and therefore don't have any sperm. We are able to remove sperm from the testicle and then go on and inject it into the woman's eggs and that will result in very high success rate, including high fertilization and high pregnancy rate at least similar to what one would achieve through the natural IVF. For men who had undergone vasectomy the option of reversal of vasectomy still exists, however, removal of the sperm from the testicle and insertion into the egg has resulted in higher success rate and more expedient achievement of pregnancy than reversal of vasectomy. ICSI has become a standard, rather than an exception. Most in-vitro fertilization procedures these days are performed with the aid of ICSI. We have come to realize that inserting the sperm into the egg allows higher fertilization rate than natural fertilization.