In Vitro fertilisation (IVF) of the eggs can be performed through conventional IVF, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI).
Find out how the egg retrieval process is performed.
Conventional fertilisation consists of connecting the eggs with more than 100,000 sperm so that fertilisation occurs.
When is conventional fertilisation recommended?
Conventional fertilisation has been the technique used for IVF until the appearance of ICSI. Currently its use is limited to those rare cases in which fertilisation can be performed with both techniques if there is a high number of eggs.
ICSI consists of the intracytoplasmic sperm injection technique. One sperm is injected into each egg through microinjection. Sperm selection is performed at 400x magnification.
When is the ICSI treatment recommended?
ICSI is the most common In Vitro fertilisation technique of choice for the majority of cases, especially if there has been a history of fertilisation failure or very poor sperm quality.
Learn about the intracytoplasmic sperm microinjection technique.
IMSI consists of the intracytoplasmic injection of morphologically selected sperm. It differs from ICSI in that sperm selection is performed under 8000x, which allows the best sperm to be chosen, significantly improving the reproductive prognosis.
In order to perform it, a microscope with high image quality combined with complex computer software is needed, which allows the handling of the microscope from their computer.
When is the IMSI method recommended?
Applying IMSI is recommended in cases of poor sperm quality, to improve the selection of the sperm that will be used when fertilising the egg:
Severe teratospermia
High levels of sperm DNA fragmentation
These are the differences between ICSI and IMSI techniques.