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Hi All
i will be starting my first ivf cycle soon (currently taking the pill for 3 weeks) the nurse told me today on the phone that the way they will do it is by placing dh sperm in with the egg and let them do their own thing?? is this the norm for first time ivf? i thought they were supposed to inject the sperm in to the egg - isnt that what ivf is?
thanx for your help i am very new at this and very confused
hi D4B - welcome to BB hun
there are a couple of different types of IVF - there is standard IVF, and IVF/ICSI - your doc has suggested standard IVF which is used when there are no reasons why the sperm can't enter the egg on their own - from what i understand, this is the preferred method.
ICSI is the process of injecting the sperm into the egg, and is used when there are factors that may prevent the sperm from entering an egg. ICSI seems to carry a higher risk of fragmentation of the DNA inside the egg - it's also more expensive and, until recently, there was no medicare rebate for it
there are other's who've gonethrough ICSI and are probably more able to give ytou extra info - come on over and join us in the Long Term TTC and Assisted Conception thread. we're generally a welcoming and helpful bunch!
Hi D4B,
BG is right, conventional IVF is where lots of sperm are put in the same dish as one egg, and they are left to do their thing!
ICSI is only necessary if there are reasons to believe that this technique won't result in fertilisation i.e. not enough sperm, poor sperm morphology etc etc.
You only need ICSI if previous tests have shown that there are one or other factors that would get in the way of your egg and your partner's sperm from fertilising normally in the dish.
Good Luck, and i hope you have success with this cycle. Feel free to read all the threads here and ask questions that you might have.
Jo
I have also heard and our FS has confirmed it that usually in ALL cases they will do standard IVF on the first go before they do ICSI as this procedure is a lot more costly and hands on in the 'lab'. Our fertility problems are with my husband and his amount of motile sperm including quantity and quality so we always knew we would need ICSI but the did IVF anyway, needless to say not one egg fertilised, the next time we did ICSI and now we are doing it again - it's stupid really and it may be different elsewhere but that's what we came across! Basically ICSI is needed if your husbands sperm is unable to penetrate the wall of the embryo, i think my husbands sperm have their heads on backwards or they have no teeth!
Just wanted to make sure that you realise that IVF is the same whether you do ICSI or not. ICSI is just an added process to the end after EPU. You can't do an ICSI without doing the whole IVF process first (or in conjunction).
You can do IVF with ICSI, or without. You can't do ICSI without IVF.
everyone's right in that it's not 'standard' to do ICSI. In fact I've had 5 stim cycles and never had to do it. ICSI is an add-on procedure to IVF, undertaken only if there are fertilisation issues, usually associated with Male Factor infertility.