[shells0701]

Hi,

We are in the process of doing all the prelim police checks etc and hoping to start our first IVF cycle in May. I was just wondering if anyone has done IVF with ICSI and if so what was the success of this vs the 'conventional' IVF?

We attended an info session the other night and apart from the cost diff which in the scheme of things is not that much more (I think $400) I was wondering why more people didn't go with this option...would appreciate any thoughts/advice?

[LoveMy3Kids]

We did an ICSI cycle as we have male fertility issues. The sperm were spun off to remove the dodgy ones and then only good ones were injected into the eggs. This gave us the best chance of conception and we luckily achieved a positive on our first cycle.

I would think that if there are only female fertility issues that ICSI isn't necessary as the sperm will fertilise the eggs once given the opportunity.

Good luck with your cycle!

Reason for edit: Removed ticker

[Guest_Dinah_Harris_*]

We did our ICSI in 2005 so was a while ago now. From memory, ICSI was significantly more expensive. This might have changed since then. We used it for male infertility.
ETA, as for success rates, we were always given 40% success rate. I'm not sure how this rates against conventional IVF.

This post has been edited by Dinah_Harris: 06/04/2012, 09:13 PM

[libbylu]

When I looked into it 18 months ago it was about $1500 more expensive per cycle to do ICSI than conventional IVF. We were initially going to do ICSI due to male factor issues, but our FS tested DSs sperm for zona binding and it was normal, so we ended up doing a conventional cycle.
Our FS prefers not to do ICSI unless really necessary because you are taking away the natural selection element of fertilisation. With ICSI, the embryologist chooses which sperm to inject into the egg based on properties that they can observe. These are not necessarily the sperm that would normally make it into the egg. When you do conventional IVF the sperm and eggs are all in the dish, so via natural selection, certain sperm beat the others too it. He said we don't know what the long term affect of using ICSI will be. However, so far there doesn't seem to be much difference but you are very slightly more likely to get a girl.
Good luck!

[Milano]

I would think that if there are only female fertility issues that ICSI isn't necessary as the sperm will fertilise the eggs once given the opportunity.

Not true unfortunately. My DH has perfect swimmers and we are doing ISCI because I have Low Ovarian Reserve (ie. I'm a poor responder and don't get many eggs). Because of this, ICSI is recommended by our FS to help our minimal eggs get the best chance of fertilising.

[LoveMy3Kids]

Not true unfortunately. My DH has perfect swimmers and we are doing ISCI because I have Low Ovarian Reserve (ie. I'm a poor responder and don't get many eggs). Because of this, ICSI is recommended by our FS to help our minimal eggs get the best chance of fertilising.

I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for clarifying . I guess we only had explained to us the information we needed to know.

Reason for edit: Removed ticker

[EloiseIVF]

Hi Shells,

I also have LOR, like Milano. I've just finished a long down reg cycle. We got 4 good quality eggs and DH's sperm also looked good in the dish, however none would penetrate the eggs so we got no fertilisations. I was told they will do ICSI next time, so I'm stimming back to back. I'm a bit angry that they didn't do it this time when they saw the sperm binding issue, especially since four good eggs for me was in itself a minor miracle. So, in short, we didn't actually have either egg quality or sperm quality issues; just some 'unexplained' non binding sperm. I would say ASK, ASK, ASK all you need to.

Ellie x

[emski72]

We just did ICSI last cycle and $1k extra with City Fertility Clinic.

[Monket]

We did ICSI in 2006 due to sperm binding issues. FTR, we had a boy!

[causeway]

We did ICSI with both our cycles & the outcome of our second cycle is wearing a green wondersuit, lying next to me. We were with QFG & once medicare rebate came back we were out of pocket by $40. BTW, we did have a girl... I didnt know that ICSI produced more girls! ICSI was recommended due to my LOR & poor numbers, as well as moderate DNA issues in sperm.