Australia IVF - In Vitro Fertilisation - Infertility Treatments Information

ICSI is the injection of a single sperm directly into the egg using a specially prepared needle. It is recommended for severe cases of male infertility and where there has been no fertilisation following IVF previously. 

With ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection), very few sperm are required and the ability of the sperm to penetrate the egg is no longer important as this penetration is bypassed by the ICSI technique. It is important to remember that whilst ICSI is a technique used in the laboratory to help fertilisation occur, it does not guarantee it. Couples go through the same preparatory processes as with IVF, namely ovulation induction and egg collection.

ICSI can only be carried out on a mature egg. Unfortunately egg maturity can only be truly identified under the microscope and it is, therefore, possible that following egg collection, none of the eggs are suitable for ICSI. This situation is fortunately rare.

A small percentage of eggs (fewer than 1 in 10) will be damaged by the injection process and the damage is evident at the time of the injection procedure. These eggs can no longer be used. Of the remaining eggs, however, on average 6 out of 10 are fertilised following the ICSI procedure. The fertilised embryos are allowed to develop as for standard IVF treatment prior to embryo transfer.