It is common for couples and doctors to underestimate the role of men in fertility treatments and that all attention is focused on the study and treatment of women. This is unfortunate because in about 40% of the time, the male factor is the most relevant.
cause and try to get better. The most severe problems such as extremely low numbers (less than 1 million) or the total absence of spermatozoa in the ejaculate (azoospermia) and large abnormalities in the spermatozoa rarely obtain improvement and therefore assisted reproduction techniques must be used.
The Solution to the Severe Male Problem – Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection ICSI.
Naturally, a large number of sperm are required to reach the egg to break the barrier that surrounds it (zona pellucida) and fertilization is achieved. The discovery of ICSI in the 90s allowed a single sperm to fertilize the egg. This is done by using a micromanipulator that traps a sperm in a microscopic needle and inserts it directly into the egg during a cycle of In vitro fertilization.
ICSI is then used when sperm do not move on their own, when there are many abnormal sperm, when there are very few sperm and even when there are no sperm in the ejaculate. In the latter case, even if there are no sperm in the ejaculate, there is a very good chance that there are sperm in the testicle. These sperm can be obtained by puncture or biopsy of the testicle and used in ICSI.
Other Options:
When sperm are not found in the ejaculate or in the biopsy or the man does not want to have a testicular biopsy or has a genetic disease that he does not want to pass on to his children, the Artificial Insemination with Donated Semen, IAD. In this case, sperm are obtained from a sperm bank and introduced into the woman’s reproductive system at the time of ovulation.
