Fertility treatments can seem very confusing especially if you’ve started out searching for treatments that are best for you. Here we consider how IVF and ICSI differ, and when ICSI would be recommended as opposed to conventional IVF.\nWhat is IVF?\nIVF places your eggs with prepared sperm in culture media within a laboratory dish. The sperm will naturally penetrate the egg leading to fertilisation overnight. The resulting embryos will develop in an incubator for three to five days. Your embryos are monitored by an embryologist and the best will be chosen for transfer to your womb.\nWhat is ICSI?\nWith Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) a single sperm is selected by an embryologist, taken up in a fine glass needle, and injected directly into each egg. Your fertilised egg (embryo) is then transferred into your womb in the same way as an IVF cycle.\nSimilarities and differences of IVF and ICSI\nICSI is similar to IVF as eggs and sperm are collected from each partner or donor. On the day of egg collection, an embryologist inseminates the eggs and the following day selects out those that are fertilised. They are kept and monitored in an incubator for up to five days and the best embryos are transferred into your womb to implant.\nICSI differs from IVF as each egg is individually injected with a single sperm, bypassing the stage where the sperm has to naturally penetrate the egg.\nWhen is ICSI used?\nICSI is used if the sperm is unlikely to fertilise an egg naturally. This may be when:\n• Sperm count is very low\n• Sperm can’t move properly\n• Sperm has a high rate of abnormality\n• Sperm is retrieved directly from the epididymis (PESA) or the testicles (TESA), from the urine, or by electro-ejaculation\n• There are high levels of antibodies in the semen\n• Previous IVF treatment has resulted in failed fertilisation\n• Sperm has been frozen\nWhat ICSI offers\nICSI offers men with very few sperm (oligospermia), no sperm (azoospermia) in their semen but has had successful surgical retrieval of sperm, or high numbers of abnormal sperm that are unable to fertilise an egg, the chance of having their own genetic child with their partner. For patients using frozen sperm, or who have had a previous failed cycle due to low fertilisation, it also offers the chance of achieving a pregnancy.\nThe decision on whether the patient has to go for IVF or ICSI will be taken by the clinician and the embryologist. Sometimes in cases that look ripe for IVF, ICSI is preferred. When is ICSI used?\n

Difference between ICSI & IVF