Michelle Emblenton, a biochemist at inviTRA, tells us why ICSI is not always use:
When we think about assisted reproduction treatments, we like to try and make them as close to natural conception as possible.
With a classical IVF procedure, the egg cells are mixed with a sperm sample and the sperms themselves have to swim to, bind to, penetrate and fertilize the egg. This is more similar to the processes involved in natural conception.
The idea here is it is the strongest of the sperm that will make that small journey to the egg cell to fertilize it, rather than one that has been selected by the specialist.
However, in cases where there are problems with the sperm in terms of motility or perhaps poor morphology, we can aid this process and ensure that fertilization occurs.
