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If you and your partner have questions regarding intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), contact IVF New Jersey today.






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Somerset, NJ 08873
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Phone: 732-220-9060
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Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) at Our New Jersey Practice

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a laboratory procedure developed primarily to help infertile couples that are undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) due to severe male factor infertility. ICSI involves the insertion of a single sperm directly into the cytoplasm of a mature egg (oocyte) using a microinjection pipette (glass needle). ICSI has largely replaced the two previously developed micromanipulation techniques, partial zonal dissection (PZD) and subzonal insertion (SUZI), because ICSI achieves higher overall fertilization rates. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) at our New Jersey practice is extremely successful.

A variety of sperm problems may account for male infertility. Sperm can be completely absent in the ejaculate (azoospermia) or present in low concentrations (oligospermia). They may have poor motility (asthenospermia), or an increased percentage of abnormal shapes and forms (teratospermia). There may also be abnormalities in the series of steps required for fertilization, such as sperm binding to and penetrating the egg. Deficiencies in any of these aspects of sperm function can lead to lack of fertilization.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is not a perfect technique. Some eggs may be damaged by the ICSI process. Some eggs have plasma membranes that are difficult to pierce. In other instances, the fertilized egg may fail to divide, or the embryo may arrest at an early stage of development. The egg fertilization rate at our facility is 60 to 70 percent with intracytoplastmic sperm injection. The ICSI live birth rate at our New Jersey practice is 40 to 65 percent for patients using their own or donor eggs. For IVF patients using their own eggs, the birth rate may be higher or lower depending on the patient's age and egg quality.

Perinatal outcome studies in Europe suggest that, although multiple pregnancies are common with intracytoplasmic sperm injection, there is to date no evidence of an increased incidence of congenital malformations. There was a small increase in the incidence of sex chromosome abnormalities (0.8% vs. 0.2%) in children born after ICSI. There is no evidence that abnormalities may arise later in life to babies born as a result of ICSI, although there is also no guarantee that all babies will be normal. For example, because some causes of male infertility are unexplained and/or related to genetic problems, male offspring may have reproductive problems as an adult. Furthermore, approximately 1 in 20 individuals in the general population will have a birth defect, and this risk is likely to be similar in babies born as a result of the ICSI procedure.

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Indications for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) at IVF New Jersey

  1. Very low numbers of sperm or sperm motility
  2. Problems with sperm binding to and penetrating the egg
  3. The presence of antisperm antibodies (immune or protective proteins which attack and destroy sperm)
  4. Prior fertilization failure with standard IVF culture and fertilization methods
  5. Frozen sperm collected prior to cancer treatment that may be limited in number and quality
  6. Absence of sperm secondary to blockage or abnormality of the ejaculatory ducts that allow sperm to move from the testes. In this situation, sperm are obtained from the epididymis by a procedure called microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration ( MESA), or from the testes by testicular sperm aspiration (TESA)
  7. When there is no fertilization/pregnancy history documented for a male partner regardless of sperm parameters, we may do ICSI on a portion or sometimes all of the eggs
  8. When a small number of mature eggs is retrieved (less than six), we may perform ICSI even with normal sperm and/or a fertilization/pregnancy history

Only mature eggs can be used for the intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure. The decision to perform ICSI is often made by your IVF New Jersey embryologists on the day of the egg retrieval.

If you and your partner would like to know more about intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), contact IVF New Jersey today.

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