What is intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) Treatment

ICSI, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, is a treatment for impotence. It is done in a lab by putting live sperm into someone’s eggs. An embryo (fertilization egg) can be made with this method. You can get a successful pregnancy through ICSI, which is a type of IVF. Medical professionals usually use ICSI when a person can’t have a child because of male infertility. When sperm is directly injected into an egg, it is called intracytoplasmic. The gel-like stuff in the middle of an egg is made up of water, salt, and other chemicals.

How is ICSI not the Same as IVF?

ICSI is one kind of IVF. When you get standard IVF, your doctor puts an egg on a lab dish next to thousands of sperm directly. It’s up to chance whether one of the sperm gets into the egg and fertilizes it. Conception, which is also called fertilization, doesn’t happen if none of the sperm touch the egg.

Through the direct placement of a single sperm into a single egg, ICSI helps with the process of fertilization. Still, ICSI doesn’t promise that the egg will hatch.

Your doctor will put the fertilized egg (embryo) into your uterus during both ICSI and standard IVF. If the egg sticks to the walls of your uterus, you are pregnant.

What is ART, or Assisted Reproduction Technology?

ICSI and IVF are both types of assisted reproductive technology (ART) that are used to treat infertility. ART refers to fertility techniques that are done in a lab and use eggs and sperm from outside of a person to start a baby.

How well does Intracytoplasmic Sperm Transfer Work?

ICSI is used in about six out of ten IVF processes. You have the same chances of getting pregnant with ICSI as you do with regular IVF. It is thought that between 50 and 80 percent of ICSI tries lead to fertilization.

Why do we need the ICSI Procedure?

ICSI works best for people who are having trouble getting pregnant with a boy. ICSI may be suggested by your doctor if someone has:

Anejaculation means not being able to ejaculate.
Their male sexual system is being blocked.
Not many sperm.
Not very good sperm.
When a man ejaculates, the sperm moves backward into his stomach.

ICSI may also be needed if:

Embryos have not been made with traditional IVF.
The guy who is giving you the eggs is over 35 years old.
You’re trying to get pregnant with eggs or sperm that have already been frozen (cryopreservation).
Someone does an intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

An OB/GYN who is also a fertility specialist might be able to help you. These doctors fix problems with the endocrine system that make it hard to get pregnant. They know a lot about finding and treating infertility and keeping a woman’s fertility

What Takes Place Before Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

The eggs and sperm must be collected by your doctor before ICSI can happen.

To get an egg, these steps must be taken:

For ovulation induction, which is also known as ovarian stimulation, the person who is releasing the eggs gets doses of medicine for eight to fourteen days. This makes your ovaries make more than one egg at the same time so they can hatch. Next, a dose of Lupron, or human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), will help the eggs finish maturing.
For egg extraction, your doctor will use transvaginal ultrasound to help guide a thin needle through the wall of your vagina and into your ovaries. A light anesthetic is used for this step, so it doesn’t hurt. Along with the needle is a sucking device that pulls out and catches the eggs.
On the same day that the eggs are taken out, sperm collection also happens, unless frozen sperm is used.
Sperm given by the person should not have intercourse or masturbation (no ejaculation) for two to three days before the sperm collection.
Masturbates at home or in a private room at a pregnancy center, and then ejaculates into a jar given by the lab. The lab must receive the samples no more than 60 minutes after the ejaculation.

Right away, a semen study is done to check the quality, quantity, and movement of the sperm. Some people may need treatment to collect sperm if they have azoospermia, anejaculation, or backward ejaculation. This is also true for people who try to reverse an abortion but fail. In some cases, the hospital may be the better place for procedures like electroejaculation and tiny testicular sperm extraction. For later use in IVF at the clinic, the sperm may be frozen and stored in a lab. This is called “sperm banking.”

During Intracytoplasmic Sperm Transfer, What Does it Happen?

During ICSI, your doctor or nurse will:

- Keep the fully grown egg in place on a lab dish with a pipette, which is a small glass tube with a suction tip.
- uses a tiny needle to stop one sperm from moving and pick it up.
- To get to the cytoplasm, the needle is put into the egg.
- Puts the sperm into the cell’s cytoplasm.
- Takes the needle off of the egg.

What Comes Next After ICSI Treatment

After ICSI, your doctor will check the fertilized egg in the lab for signs that it was fertilized successfully. A good egg that has been fertilized should split into cells and make a blastocyst in five to six days. Your doctor will look at the size and number of cells in the embryo to figure out when it’s most likely to become pregnant.

On the fifth or sixth day after the egg removal process, the embryo transfer. Usually, the transfer is put off for a month or even a year. Your doctor will talk to you about when to have the egg transfer. Your doctor will use ultrasound to put a catheter (a long, thin tube) into your vagina and then inject the baby into your uterus. The baby has to connect to your uterus for you to become pregnant. Your doctor may tell you to wait at least two weeks before getting a pregnancy test.

Benefits and Risks of ICSI Attempts

Benefits:

ICSI makes it possible for men who can’t have children or have low sperm count, bad morphology, or bad quality sperm to have children. Women over 35 who are having trouble getting pregnant have a better chance of getting pregnant with ICSI.

Risks:

The chances of multiple gestation, premature birth (even in singleton pregnancies), and congenital defects in the progeny are all greatly elevated by assisted reproduction. Most pregnancies conceived by in vitro fertilization end successfully, with the delivery of healthy babies.

What are the Baby’s Risks if ICSI is Used?

About 2% of babies born in the U.S. have genetic diseases, which means they had a health problem from the start. A further 1% of children born through ICSI are born with birth defects. Experts in medicine believe that these issues may be caused by the main reason for infertility, not by the fertility treatment itself. And this risk isn’t that big, since birth problems happen in only 2% of babies born each year.

FAQs Regarding ICSI:

How do people who use ICSI get better and what is their outlook?

Recovery and prognosis depend on how the IVF process is done.

When to See a doctor?

You should get in touch with your doctor if you notice any of these symptoms:

When a fertilized egg implants outside of the uterus, this is called an ectopic pregnancy.
Getting sick.
Lost the baby.
Birth before time.

Does ICSI make it more likely that you will have twins, triplets, or more?

Your doctor may use ICSI to fertilize more than one egg to improve your chances of getting pregnant. You might have twins, triplets, or more if you decide to move more than one egg. A multiple pregnancy can make it more likely that the kids will be born early or have other problems.

Dr Ritu Agarwal

Dr. Ritu Agarwal is an appreciated IVF expert in Jaipur for IVF therapy, owing to her more than ten years of experience in this field. She is the top IVF specialist in Jaipur who makes every attempt to provide correct counseling and emotional support to patients in order to help them find the ideal solution for becoming parents.