With this technique, a single human sperm cell is injected into the cytoplasm of the egg.

ICSI is a technique allowing microinjection of a single sperm into the egg. ICSI is an improvement of the original method of micro-injection of sperm into egg called SUZI (Sub-Zona Injection), which was invented by the team in Singapore in 1990, of which one of TMC Fertility Centre's doctors was part of.

This procedure is especially effective in treating infertility related to very low sperm count, motility or very few normal-shaped sperms.

Severe male infertility and impaired fertilisation are assisted by this new technology. To date, the following criteria have been used for ICSI:

1. The semen parameters which are too impaired for successful standard IVF treatment, i.e. less than one million sperm per ml with less than 50% progressive motile sperm or less than 5% normal morphology in a final sperm concentration.
2. At least one failed IVF attempt with an adequate number of inseminated oocytes and a low fertilization (less than 20%) rate.
   

Requirements
The production of more than 4 oocytes.

1. Hormone treatment (superovulation) to ensure the development of several oocytes.
2. Monitoring of follicular growth.
3. Induction of ovulation.
4. Transvaginal (under sedation) aspiration of oocytes.
5. The sperm sample is prepared approximately 1 hour before the aspiration of the oocytes.The sample can be an ejaculated sample or a sample from a testicular biopsy.
   
6. A single sperm is injected into each oocyte (ICSI).
   
7. Embryo development (2-5 days)
   
8. Transvaginal (no need anaesthetia) transfer of embryos.
   
9. Pregnancy test (10-13 days, after transfer)

Number of visits to centre

• 7 to 10 per cycle for the female
• 2 visits for the male

Clinical pregnancy rate per embryo transfer at TMC Fertility Centre is 47.3%*