Hi Kahlan,

Welcome to the discussion.

As DH has sperm issue we went directly to ICSI
Yes, ICSI has been a god-send in terms of helping couples with sperm issues. It was certainly a clever idea.

There is no natural selection in terms of which eggs is fertilised by which sperm (remember in natural selection the bulk of the sperm is killed prior reaching the uterus anyway whether they are good ones or bad) and not every egg gets fertilised
Natural select certainly has a component of luck in it in terms of the individual, and yes the bulk of the sperm (both good and bad) are killed before reaching the egg. But only sperm with good mobility generally ever reach the sperm ... thus a screening process ... the next screening process is "can the sperm enter the egg" ... and then can the sperm fertilise the egg ... and finally can the combination of chromosomes grow from an embryo to a child. Thus natural selection is more apparent when you consider the sperm population (???) as a whole rather than an individual sperm. The better quality sperm are more likely to result in a child.

at this point I don't care if it is not natural selection.. I just want a baby..
Every couple who is LTTTC would totally agree. That is the great thing about ICSI as it bypasses getting to the egg and entering the egg, but then nature takes over again for the rest of the steps ... thus why ICSI is not 100% successful.


what is more morally troubling for me is the frosties I still have... I don't think I have the heart to destroy them....
As a donor I do not have a say in that. I would rather the embryos were donated to another couple who needed them but it is totally up to the recipient families.

Would you consider donating your embryos to other couples?

To answer your question about seeing "quality" under the microscope.. well when it comes to sperm, bad ones could certainly be seen because they are "deformed" in some way. That's is how they find out how infertile a man is.
You are only considering outside appearance. The "inside" counts too!!! It is possible that a sperm can look good on the outside and swim well but can not fertilise an egg ... thus why ICSI is not 100% successful ... it is not even close to 100%. We still have much to learn about human Reproduction.