ICSI Question

HawkJr

Due to my Dh's wonderful SA results, our re thinks we shouldn't use ICSI, which is included in his IVF price. Of course he knows what he's doing, but is it silly that I want everything controlled? I want ICSI anyway even though he's confident we don't need it lol.

Ccjones85

That's great that YH SA results are great but I would still want the ICSI as well especially if you are already paying for it! 

Good Luck!! 

HawkJr

Exactly how I see it! We're already paying all this money, why leave anything to chance if we don't have to?

Mitzi Bishi

Can you request a half ICSI half IVF? Usually ICSI is a bit more expensive. 

kellygksu

We were shown fertilization results for ICSI v. regular fertilization for our clinic, and the results were very similar, almost negligible.  We had slight MFI and only 9 mature eggs, so they ICSI'd all of ours.  If we had had more eggs, we might have wanted to try to ICSI some and see if some would fertilize on their own.  Maybe see if that's an option, like PP said.  Good luck!

pillowass

My husband's numbers were also really good. We chose not to ICSI, and ended up with 7/8 mature eggs fertilizing normally. Of course, in retrospect I can see it was a good decision but I really agonized over it. Not sure what we would have done if it was already paid for. I guess I just wanted to share this so you know that choosing not to ICSI can result in very good fert rates. Good luck!

kmc84

I know how you feel! My ER was yesterday and I said if we had a low number of eggs we wanted ICSI even though DH has great sperm. My nurse explained that if a number of almost mature eggs are retrieved along with mature eggs ICSI isn't the best idea. The reason being to do ICSI would not allow the almost mature eggs to mature, so essentially they have no chance. Those same eggs can potentially mature and fertilize using conventional IVF giving you a greater chance at more embies. FWIW 5/5 of my mature eggs fertilized conventionally. I hope that makes sense! Good luck!

cindyc24

That is good news about YH's SA results. 

When I was first researching IVF and all that came with it, I found out about ICSI and my initial thought was "why would I want some guy in a lab pairing our egg and sperm together"? My first thoughts were that I wanted to try and keep it as natural as possible, with the sperm naturally fertilizing each egg. Now that I am into my cycle and we are paying all this money for it, I want the best chances of having as many healthy embies as possible and don't care as much how we get there. 

I think it would ultimately come down to what you and YH would feel most comfortable with since you are paying for this, not only financially but emotionally as well. No matter what you need to feel comfortable with the decision. Best of luck to you!

Roxie5739

My RE is opting for no ISCI this time around as he said that only normal sperm will try to fertilize an egg and he wants to maximize my chances and remove any risk from pairing a bad sperm with a good egg from me. My history will explain the reasoning for this but thought it was an interesting concept.

Aegis2005

Honestly, if I could have done it without ICSI I would have preferred that.  We only did it because I had 22 eggs and we only had about 35 usable sperm. 

farmerlynda

We didn't want to do all ICSI and had to fight with IVF #1 to do conventional on a few of our eggs just to see if DH's sperm was capable of fertilizing conventionally (it was).  There are some increased risks of birth defects associated with ICSI, although the overall incidence is very low and it's unclear whether the risks are associated with the procedure itself, or with a pre-existing condition (i.e., severe MFI). 

However, there have been ladies on this board who had completely normal sperm count numbers and ended up with zero or very limited fertilization.  For IVF #2, we didn't risk any eggs on conventional fertilization partly because we were more worried about other things (like the quality of my eggs and the fact that the previous cycle had failed).  I agree with Mitzi -- if you're worried, maybe consider a "split ICSI", or 50/50 split.

4legsRbest

We pay extra for it but my RE's office does it on am emergency basis if the DH is good to go and they don't think we need it right off the bat. We signed a waiver stating it could be done after ER without our prior consent if the embryologist thinks it needs to be done and they aren't making it through on their own. Makes me feel good to know they are watching them the whole time. I don't blame you for how you feel. GL!!

brooklynesque

With no MFI my RE prefers not to do ICSI because of the additional risk of birth defects that farmerlynda mentioned.  If I get less than 9-10 eggs, though, I think I'm going to ask for at least partial ICSI.  I don't want to end up with nothing to transfer if fertilization is my issue.