[justone]

ICSI has been suggested to us for our next cycle as only 4 of 11 follicles ended up being fertilized and one was real poor. I've been doing some searching and there seems to be quite a bit of controversy. has anyone had this? did it end up as a successful pregnancy. I'm just tryingto weigh the benefits with the additional cost

[futuremom]

we didnt have achoice..our re said we had to do icsi so we did. now we have 8 week old twins. I have heard most people say their re told them it would improve their chances, especially if the issue was sperm! good luck

[CaribbeanQueen]

We did ICSI with each of our 4 fresh cycles. Our RE suggested it because of DH's diagnosis. We have two healthy and happy daughters!

[harpjs]

We will be doing ICSI and DH doesn't have any known issues with his swimmers. My RE does it with all IVFers at his clinic. He says there is a better success rate. Best of luck!

[HRMS MOM]

We did it also, we had a IVF that had a BFP but ended in miscarriage and our FET worked and we have (if I do say so myself) a wonderful 1 year old that is the apple of our eye!

[wannabeamomma]

We are doing ICSI bc of our male factor....but I have heard that it increases the chances for success.

[Carolina]

Our 2nd RE did not give us an option unless we didn't want to for religious believes. They said that if we go through so much to make does follies/eggies then the least they can do is give us our best shot. They don't leave it up to chance that's why they said.

ICSI is normally is used for Male Factor infertility, we were unexplained. Hope this helps, in my opinion is worth it.

Best of luck in you upcoming cycle.

[yodasmistress]

My husband and I did a LOT of research on ICSI prior to this IVF. ICSI produces an absolute increase of about 1% in birth defects (especially a few particular ones). Otherwise, there is no known difference between a baby resultihg from IVF/ICSI vs a baby from a traditionally fertilized egg.

[nrudolph0578]

Yes, there have been some studies shown that ICSI could have a higher percentage of birth defects, including cleft palatte, heart issues, and genital issues, but this is largely due to the fact that the higher percentage of those utilizing ICSI are women over the age of 35 where the risk for birth defects is higher to begin with. ICSi has been proven to result in much higher success rates in the fertilization of the egg, anywhere from 50-80% and many facilities do not allow you a choice other than for religious reasons. We had to do ICSI due to the fact that my husband had sperm retrieval done, where the sperm that is retrieved has low morph and low motil and we are currently 27 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. Luckily to date, there have been no issues that we know of with the baby and all looks great. I have heard that ICSI babies tend to be boys, but not sure if that is true or a old tale!

[jdw]

We did ICSI on all three of our IVF cycles at the recommendation of our RE. The result was one healthy son who is almost 5, on BFP that ended in m/c and I'm currently 7 weeks pg. GL with your cycle.

[Siren523]

I am also ICSI success story. DH's numbers were low so my RE said it would give us the best chance. Well, it worked for us and we will be welcoming our triplet girls in 2 weeks!!!

[fossie]

I had to weigh in just on the success rate issue - from what I have learned there is a better success rate because the women using it are typically not facing as many issues personally - the main reason for their struggles are usually male factor. It is supposed to really improve success rates in couples who are facing male factor problems or who have had a failed cycle that produced few eggs or a low fertilization rate. Not sure about the birth defects but from what I understand it can't be assumed that the person using ICSI is usually older because that is not the only reasoning for using ICSI, more often than not it is male factor.

That being said, I think there has been a lot of research that shows that more often than not it is very helpful. We did not use ICSI but definitely would have tried it if our first cycle had not been succesful.

[justone]

Thank you so much for all the success stories. I actually feel encouraged which has been a challenge over these last few years. I think we will probably end up doing it. Doing some more research and I was surprised at how common it is as standard protocol. I'm going to chat with my RE more and see if he can also give me more information. Does it increase chance of multiples? twins would be fantastic. good luck to all of you who are expecting.