ICSI vs IVF
Myths and misconceptions

Ms. Antara Mukherjee
IVF SPECIALIST

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Parenthood is the culmination of a couple’s shared dream and nature’s miracle. With progress in biological science, we have been able to decrypt some principles involved in the process of reproduction. One of the major breakthroughs in fertility science is in-vitro fertilization (IVF) by which so many couples have achieved parenthood. When a couple decides to go for IVF they come across two major techniques i.e. conventional IVF and Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). (Know more about ICSI here)

Now the question arises how does a doctor decide which technique is suitable for a couple and why? Before knowing the answer one may want to know how IVF and ICSI are done.

During conventional IVF, many sperms are placed together with an egg in a suitable culture media, with the hope that one of the sperms will enter and fertilize the egg on its own.

In the case of ICSI, the embryologist takes a single sperm and injects it directly into the egg. Some fertility clinics recommend ICSI for every IVF cycle. Others have reserved the treatment for those with severe male infertility or medically indicated reason. There are good arguments against the routine use of ICSI and also evidence from non-randomized studies suggests there is no perceivable additional benefit from using ICSI compared to conventional IVF in all cases.

However, conventional IVF is much less effective when the patient semen characteristic is below the standard values or when the fertilization rate in the previous cycle has been low or in some other cases like where frozen oocyte are being used, PGD (Preimplantation genetic diagnosis) is being done or IVM ( In Vitro Maturation) is being used. Studies suggest that there is a very small risk of complete fertilization failure after conventional IVF. Gamete micromanipulation is the suitable method to overcome these problems but ICSI does not guarantee 100% fertilizationRecently, the use of ICSI has been expanded widely. Infertility clinics are suggesting ICSI to patients suffering from less number of egg retrieval, unexplained infertility, advanced maternal age (Read More about the Causes of Male and Female Infertility). The effectiveness of ICSI in these cases is still a matter of research. A standard cycle involving ICSI often incurs higher costs and more time (Read More about the IVF Treatment cost). However, ICSI is a boon to couples suffering from severe male infertility.