Is PICSI worth it?

[Anonymous]

My new clinic is recommending PICSI. We’ve had 5 failed transfers and 3 miscarriages. We’re planning to do PGS testing with our next cycle to better determine whether an embryo or receptivity issue. My husband’s morphology has been fine in the past, but a recent test showed less than 3% normal. Is PICSI worth it? It’s going to cost an extra $500, and while we’ll do anything to improve our chances, I’ve read conflicting things about it. I would love to hear your experiences. Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

It's an extra screening step that might work. I'm not sure if it's worth it. If you can afford it and want to look back with no regrets, it may be worth doing. I don't know if it has made any differences in the cycles where I have done it. The reviews are mixed. I don't think it can hurt though.

[Anonymous]

It definitely improved our fertilization rate. From 11/17 to 15/16. We ended up with all abnormal blasts, though.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you both for your insight. We’ve never had an issue with fertilization before on past cycles, but at the end of the day, I definitely do not want to look back with regret and think we’ll eat the cost. Hoping for the best…

[Anonymous]

SG urologist and Cornell urologist both said no. DH had very low/poor on all fronts except DNA fragmentation test was in the normal range. Plain ICSI worked fine for us.

We had low fertilization rates on first several rounds, but that turned out to be an issue with the ivf protocol resulting in poor quality eggs. Once that was fixed fertilization rate went way up.

[Anonymous]

Mind me asking what protocol improved your egg quality? Our new clinic is planning to push me really hard. They justified the high starting dosage by saying they'd rather have to put on the brakes later in the cycle than apply the gas after a slow start. I'm a little worried the high dosage could fry the eggs though.