Male infertility and ICSI

Male infertility is an important contributing factor in 40 percent of couples who are unable to conceive. Office procedures, such as artificial insemination, have limited benefits in overcoming male infertility. In cases of very low sperm counts or poor sperm movement, couples must often use the new assisted reproductive technologies. A new procedure called ICSI (I-C-S-I) can be used with great success in most couples. ICSI stands for intracytoplasmic (in-truh-sye-toe-PLAZ-mic) sperm injection. In this process, individual sperm cells are injected directly inside the partner's eggs. As a result, instead of requiring millions of sperm cells to achieve fertilization, it takes only a few. Fertilization and eventually a healthy baby are achieved in the majority of cases.