In some circumstances, usually because of very low sperm counts, conventional IVF treatment will be unlikely to succeed because fertilisation will probably not occur. A new treatment is now available which offers you a chance of pregnancy. Pregnancy rates comparable to those of conventional IVF are achieved.

As far as you are concerned, the treatment will be exactly the same as that described in our Information Sheet about IVF. After the eggs and sperm have been collected, a single sperm will be drawn up into a very small pipette and then injected directly into the middle of the egg. The egg will be looked at the next day to see if fertilisation has occurred and, if successful, we will transfer the embryo(s) to your womb in the usual way.

There is a small chance (about 10%) that the egg will be damaged by this injection process and this egg would then not develop. Many babies have now been born after being conceived by this method and there is no evidence that they have a higher rate of abnormality. It is however a very new technique and the children born have not yet reached maturity There is theoretically a very small risk that your infertility could be passed on to a male child. We will discuss this in more detail with you in the clinic.

Occasionally, some men produce no sperm at all. We now have a technique whereby sperm can be aspirated directly from the testicle or surrounding tubes using a small needle (PESA). This is done using a local anaesthetic. PESA is usually carried out and the sperm frozen and stored before the treatment for the woman is started. After thawing, the sperm would be injected into the egg by the ICSI method to achieve fertilisation. If you need PESA, it will be discussed with you fully at the clinic.