Hi Rach,

We have just used PICSI after a very dismal 1st ICSI cycle last year. Our problem is male factor and with our original ICSI cycle, we got 8 embies (1 transferred day 4) but none survived due to DNA fragmentation.

This cycle we tried PICSI (with DH also taking vitamin C and E twice a day for the past 9 months, after we read an Italian study showing this helped reduce DNA fragmentation) - and what a different outcome we got! 8 embies - 5 making it to blastocyst with no evidence on fragmentation, 1 transferred and 4 frozen, and now I'm 5 weeks pregnant. We were so shocked at how much better this cycle was that we completely forgot to ask about the PICSI process and whether any of the sperm had bound to the hyaluronan! So we have a scan in early August and I'm going to ask our Dr whether it helped our outcome.

We figured that we were spending so much money on the cycle anyway, an extra $150 for something that was possibly going to help was money well spent. The idea is that more mature sperm (and therefore sperm that has better quality DNA) binds to the substance (hyaluronan) and therefore the lab is able to choose this higher quality sperm to inject, whereas previously they were only choosing sperm based on shape and motility alone. It doesn't always work - the sperm, even good ones, don't always bind but it's worth a shot!

Goodluck with whatever you choose and keep us posted.