Does icsi produce worse outcomes because you’re going against natural selection?

[Anonymous]

Is there value in retaining some “natural” part of the process, or not so much?

[Anonymous]

ICSI is useful if you're dealing with male factor infertility (e.g. low counts, low motility).
It may also be useful in cases where advanced maternal age makes the eggs have a harder shell and you aren't getting decent fertilization rates with regular IVF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ICSI is useful if you're dealing with male factor infertility (e.g. low counts, low motility).
It may also be useful in cases where advanced maternal age makes the eggs have a harder shell and you aren't getting decent fertilization rates with regular IVF.

We are doing it as a necessary precursor to PGT, so that we can hopefully have just one retrieval cycle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there value in retaining some “natural” part of the process, or not so much?

There is nothing “natural” about conventional ivf where the egg is surrounded by thousands of sperm that haven’t had to swim up the Fallopian tubes. That being said I had a doctor suggest that it is hypothetically possible to get better embryo progression with conventional, but that not been proven. I also had to do ICSI for PGT-A.

[Anonymous]

Just as a note, our ICSI-conceived teenage son is healthy, happy and doing very well by all the objective criteria. We had “low quality” this and “barely viable” that and he was our last try and an almost hopeless one at that. Now he’s a kind, funny teenager who is right now walking the dog before we make dinner. I had been concerned a bit about ICSI as it was needed then, but am so glad to have gone forward with it. Best wishes to everyone going through the difficult process, I remember the stress and heartache. Of my friends who were going through it all together, several of us had children through medical means, several adopted wonderful babies and toddlers, and one couple decided against having children and have been leading wonderful lives including very close extended families. Wishing you peace and happiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just as a note, our ICSI-conceived teenage son is healthy, happy and doing very well by all the objective criteria. We had “low quality” this and “barely viable” that and he was our last try and an almost hopeless one at that. Now he’s a kind, funny teenager who is right now walking the dog before we make dinner. I had been concerned a bit about ICSI as it was needed then, but am so glad to have gone forward with it. Best wishes to everyone going through the difficult process, I remember the stress and heartache. Of my friends who were going through it all together, several of us had children through medical means, several adopted wonderful babies and toddlers, and one couple decided against having children and have been leading wonderful lives including very close extended families. Wishing you peace and happiness.

Love it! Thanks for the story

[Anonymous]

I really don't think that's something to worry about. Once you get a blast going, how the initial sperm got into the egg shouldn't matter. The embryo is either normal at that point or not and goes from there.

We not only did ICSI but had an embryo frozen and thawed twice (because we hadn't PGS tested it before the first freeze, and following a miscarriage felt we needed to do that before trying another implantation) and that embryo is now a completely healthy, adorable, intelligent and happy little girl now.

I am sending you best wishes for your cycle, OP! It really is amazing what they can do these days.

[Anonymous]

We did icsi and no PGS testing and have a wonderful 3yo. No complaints!

[Anonymous]

the embryologist looks for the healthiest looking sperm