Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

The intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is another possible IVF treatment that is used when the man's sperm quality is so low that independent fertilization of the egg cell by the sperm is not possible.

For the ICSI fertilization the biologists at the KinderWunschKlinik of Dr Loimer select the “fittest” of the partner’s sperm. The seminal filaments are drawn up individually in a thin pipette and directly injected into the egg cell that has been extracted from the woman. Over 90% of the female eggs can be fertilized in this way.

The ISCO fertilization is carried out under a special microscope, and the biologists and embryologist require a lot of experience and in particular routine during this procedure.

The pretreatment of the patient is similar to that of IVF treatment.

The ICSI treatment is applied in the following cases:

• when the number of sperm is limited (less than 10 million sperm per millilitre)
• an earlier attempt at fertilisation has been unsuccessful ("null fertilisation")
• when there are morphological disorders: if the sperm's head doesn't have the correct shape to allow it to penetrate and thus fertilise the egg.