First and foremost, ICSI is a procedure which effectively eliminates male infertility by introducing sperm cells directly into an egg. While this is no guarantee of a successful fertilisation, it does improve the odds astronomically, which it does by removing the key elements that often lead to male infertility. These are sperm count, motility, and morphology (the shape and structure of the cell), all of which are vital to successful sperm action during natural conception as they are needed to get the sperm to the egg and allow it to gain access to the egg for fertilisation. As the main causes of male infertility are a low sperm count, poor motility, and poor sperm shape, you can see how ICSI is the perfect solution.
ICSI’s benefits extend beyond just acting as a treatment for male infertility, but also for anyone who is paralysed or have had in irreversible vasectomy. More importantly however, ICSI is an option for couples who have tried and failed at a standard IVF treatment. ICSI can be extremely useful where few eggs are available and so each one must have the best chance of fertilisation.