What is the Microinjection Method?
The microinjection method has helped a large proportion of prospective parents undergoing IVF treatment to have a child.
Microinjection therapy, which was first applied in 1992, is the most preferred of assisted reproductive treatments. Many prospective parents who cannot have a child naturally or with classical IVF treatment get positive results with the microinjection method.
Despite the high level of positive results, not all microinjection procedures result in fertilization. The reason for this is the difference in the quality of the reproductive cells taken from the prospective parents. In addition, the experience of the embryologist has a direct impact on the success of the procedure.
What is Microinjection?
There are two different methods of fertilization in IVF treatment. These are the classic “IVF – In Vitro Fertilization” or microinjection “ICSI – Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection”.
In conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF), a large number of spermatozoa are placed around the ovaries and one of the spermatozoa is expected to fertilize the egg. This fertilization differs from normal fertilization in that fertilization does not take place in the genital organs of the expectant mother, but in the laboratory.
The commonly used microinjection method is, in general terms, the insertion of sperm into the egg. In other words, the best quality sperm cell is injected directly into the egg cell with a fine needle using a microscope. In the microinjection method, the sperm is not expected to attach to the shell of the egg as in the natural way or the classical method and settle into the egg by passing through the shell, and with this method, the possibility of fertilization is increased to the highest level.
Who Can Receive Microinjection?
Infertility in men can occur due to various reasons. If the cause of infertility in men is poor sperm motility, sperm count or morphology, that is, if the sperm is not of sufficient quality to fertilize the egg in a natural way, microinjection can be used.
Microinjection method is a fertilization method that can be used to have a child in case of azoospermia (no sperm in semen), total immotile sperm (total immotile) in patients with very low sperm count in IVF treatment.
Sperm count is an important factor in choosing the fertilization method. Even one sperm is sufficient to perform fertilization by microinjection. Sperm cells with low mobility to reach the membrane of the egg cell or sperm cells that prevent natural fertilization due to deformity can also be applied for fertilization by microinjection method. When applying this method, there is also a chance to select the best and highest quality sperm.
If the number of eggs in the expectant mother is low (less than 5) and frozen eggs are used, microinjection method is used. Although there is no problem with the sperm, if the egg cell is thickened or hardened enough to prevent the passage of the sperm, the microinjection method is preferred. In addition, microinjection can also be used to increase the chance of fertilization in expectant mothers whose egg count has decreased due to advanced age. Apart from all these reasons, the microinjection method can also be applied in patients who have previously undergone classical IVF treatment but have not achieved positive results, whose egg and sperm quality are low, whose cause of infertility has not been fully revealed or who will undergo Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis.
Stages of Microinjection Therapy
The first stage of IVF treatment for parents who cannot conceive a child naturally is to determine the method. Detailed examinations and personal histories of the woman and the man are effective in deciding which of the classical and microinjection methods will be used in the treatment to be applied.
If the microinjection method is decided upon, as in the classical method, medication is first started to increase the number of eggs by stimulating the woman’s ovaries. The medication helps the ovaries to mature and then the egg retrieval (OPU) phase begins. OPU is the egg retrieval stage, during which sperm is collected from the man at the same time. If there is no sperm to be collected or if sperm cannot be collected, sperm collection is performed with a surgical operation called Micro TESE. The sperm and eggs obtained and taken to the laboratory are brought together for the next stage, “fertilization”. In microinjection, the sperm cell is introduced into the nucleus of the egg cell with a glass micropipette. The resulting embryo is then implanted in the woman’s uterus 2 or 3 days later and the baby is expected to attach to the uterus and grow in a healthy way.
The microinjection method increases the likelihood of a positive result from IVF treatment.