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1. ICSI
AFTER AND BEFORE COUNCELLING

3. What is the procedure for ICSI treatment?
• During ICSI, your healthcare provider:
• Uses a pipette (small glass tube with a suction bulb) to
hold the mature egg in place on a lab dish.
• Immobilizes and picks up one sperm using a thin needle.
• Inserts the needle into the egg to reach the cytoplasm.
• Injects the sperm into the cytoplasm.

4. How long does ICSI treatment take?
• It takes about four to six weeks to complete one IVF with
ICSI treatment. You have to wait for your partner's ovaries
to respond to the medication and for her eggs to mature.

5. Is ICSI painful for female?
• Is ICSI treatment painful? No, ICSI is not a painful
procedure. During the process of IVF/ICSI, the patient is
anxious about the procedure being painful. However,
there is no part of the procedure in which the patient may
experience pain.

6. How do I know if ICSI is successful?
• The most important indicator of ICSI success appears to
be the fertilization rate achieved with the ICSI procedure.
The fertilization rate in the UCSF IVF laboratory is
exceptional – currently 80 to 85 percent. That is to say, on
average, eight out of every 10 eggs will fertilize normally.

7. Is ICSI more successful than IVF?
• New Scientist reports that a recent study revealed that
ICSI boasts a pregnancy success rate of 24%. While IVF
without ICSI still has a slightly higher pregnancy success
rate at 27%, those aren't bad odds for anyone who's
already tried other methods of assisted reproductive
technology.

8. What are the disadvantages of ICSI?
• The risk of birth defects is increased slightly with ICSI
treatment, although its rare nonetheless. Some birth
defects are associated with ICSI are Angelman syndrome,
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, sex chromosome
abnormalities, and hypospadias. Also, the risk of a male
offspring having fertility issues increase slightly.

9. How many sperm do you need for ICSI?
• one sperm
• In theory, one sperm is all that is needed to fertilise an
egg and achieve a successful pregnancy using ICSI
technique.

10. Does ICSI increase chances of pregnancy?
• ICSI may give rise to an increased likelihood of
fertilization, but general use of ICSI for all cases of
infertility is not recommended in assisted reproductive
technology (ART) (3, 4). Unexplained infertility has been
one of the indications for utilization of ICSI.

11. Does ICSI damage the egg?
• ICSI carries slightly more risks than some other fertility
treatments, including a risk that eggs may be damaged
when they're cleaned and injected with sperm. It has been
suggested that the use of ICSI may also be associated
with long-term health issues for the children born.

12. What causes ICSI failure?
• The most likely cause for failed fertilization after ICSI
using round-head sperm is inability of sperm to activate
the oocyte. In some forms of globozoospermia, arrest of
nuclear decondensation and/or premature chromosome
condensation also causes fertilization failure

13. What are the benefits of ICSI?
• The main benefit of ICSI during IVF is an enhanced
fertilization rate, which can increase the number of
fertilized eggs available for transfer or freezing. For
couples struggling with male factor infertility, ICSI can also
increase your chances for a successful fertilization under
normal insemination (such as IUI).

14. How old is ICSI?
• The procedure itself was first performed in 1987, though it
only went to the pronuclear stage. The first activated
embryo by ICSI was produced in 1990, but the first
successful birth by ICSI took place on January 14, 1992
after an April 1991 conception.

15. What happens after ICSI?
• ICSI, a more involved process, requires that the
embryologist insert the sperm into the egg using a
specialized needle and a microscope. After insemination,
the eggs are placed back into the incubator to allow time
for fertilization to occur.