IVF ICSI procedures can be used for couples facing these issues to increase their chance of pregnancy. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI is often considered the single most fundamental breakthrough in the field of reproductive medicine.



There are no set criteria in the field of medicine to determine which cases should receive IVF ICSI procedures and which should not. It depends on the physician or infertility specialist and the fertility clinic that is being used.

Some fertility clinics use ICSI procedures for cases that only involve severe problems of male infertility, while others use it for a larger array of infertility problems. While ICSI procedures have a solid success rate, the success can depend on a number of factors. It will depend on the severity of the infertility problem, but can also depend on the technique that is being used and how skillful the person performing the procedure is.

While fertility clinics vary, some recommend IVF ICSI procedures for specific situations. Some of the situations are when couples are faced with male infertility that is severe and are not looking to use a sperm donor and for couples who have used IVF and have had no luck with fertilization or a low percentage of their mature eggs were fertilized. It is also used when couples have had IVF in the past and have produced very few eggs during the retrieval process.

When ICSI is used in this instance, it is to attempt to produce a higher amount of eggs that will become fertilized. The success rate for in vitro fertilization methods that include intracytoplasmic sperm injection have shown, in several studies, to be higher than that of IVF used alone. The normal reason for this is that most times the women involved were young and considered fertile.

A low quality or volume of egg production is another reason that IVF ICSI procedures can be used. The success rate when dealing with this particular infertility issue is normally lower. The main determining factor in the case of IVF procedures is the viability and quality of the embryos that are transferred.

The viability and quality of these embryos depends on the quality of the eggs that are produced. Whether the infertility issue is the production of quality eggs or the quality of the sperm, IVF and ICSI techniques can increase the chances of a couple being able to conceive a child, in most cases.