IVF/ICSI + Donor Sperms

Overview

IVF and ICSI with donor sperm technique is used to treat infertility. ICSI assisted donor sperm with IVF treatment allows the doctor to ensure reproduction technique. The entire procedure takes a few days after which the woman becomes pregnant through In Vitro Fertilization.

ICSI with donor sperm helps to treat male infertility, low sperm count and other unknown infertile conditions. Both couples and individuals may become parents, regardless of being lesbian, gay, heterosexual, divorced, married or single with this process.

The decision to use donor sperm involves many issues that should be considered. There are three different pathways that you may follow to find donor sperm:

• You may know the donor beforehand; say a donor friend or someone whom you met online through an introduction website. Together you have to go to the fertility clinic where the doctor provides you a fresh sperm sample.
• Get sperm from a fertility clinic where donated sperm are stocked and frozen, or you may buy sperm from a sperm bank.
• If you can afford go abroad with donor sperm to get a treatment.

Before the donor sperm is injected into the woman’s uterus through the vagina, there are a few procedures to be followed.

Before the Treatment

• Doctors strictly recommend women to stop smoking or drinking for at least a month before the treatment begins. Before ICSI with donor sperm procedure begins, the woman is given stimulation pills on the second or third day of her menstrual cycle. It helps the woman to ovulate for ten days from the starting day of the menstrual cycle.
• Doctors perform three ultrasounds to evaluate the optimum size of the follicles. Once the desired sizes of the eggs are achieved, doctors initiate the egg retrieval process within 35 and 38 hours of their findings.
• The capacitation and the concentration of the donor semen sample are processed to select the best quality spermatozoids.
• The embryologist uses intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI to inject a spermotazoid into the matured egg with the help of a micro needle. After the egg and the sperm is fertilized in the laboratory, the cultured embryo in placed in the woman’s womb to help her get pregnant.

How it is performed

IVF and ICSI with donor sperm treatment is done in two steps:

First Step

After the egg is retrieved, it is washed, cultured and kept in IVF incubators under controlled environment. On the same day, the donor semen sample is taken to the laboratory and processed carefully to select spermatozoid to inject it into the matured egg through ICSI process.

Second Step

• The first step involves retrieval of a matured egg from the woman. Egg retrieval procedure is carried out vaginally. Local anaesthesia or general anaesthesia or sedation is used to put the woman into sleep during the procedure.
• The doctor inserts a needle through the vagina with ultrasound guidance to reach the follicles and ovaries.
• The fluid present in the follicle is aspirated that allows the egg to get detached from the follicle wall and get removed from the ovary.
• This procedure takes a maximum of 10 minutes to perform.
• This is the final step of In Vitro Fertilization, which is followed after the sperm and the egg is cultured in the laboratory. The embryo is transferred into the woman’s womb. It should be known that the success of the entire IVF cycle depends upon this last step, which should be done carefully and with precision.
• No drugs or sedation are required. The woman stays awake through the whole procedure and the technique is performed on a full bladder.
• Full bladder enables good ultrasound visualization of the flexible, lighted tube (catheter) inserted in the vagina through the cervix into the uterus. The doctor smoothly transfers the catheter into the womb that contains the embryos. With the aid of ultrasound visualization, the doctor finds the best location in the uterine cavity to release the embryo.
• Once done, the catheter is gently withdrawn and checked under a microscope for any retained embryos. If yes, then the catheter is immediately inserted once again through the vagina and the embryo is transferred.
• The embryo gets attached to the inner lining of the uterus and if everything works fine the woman become pregnant eventually.

Recovery

Post IVF and ICSI with donor sperm treatment, the woman is advised to take rest for the remainder of the day. On the next day, you feel fit enough to carry on with normal activities. The recovery time of IVF and ICSI with donor treatment takes a few hours to a maximum of one day. Although, you can travel in any transport, you should avoid any strenuous activities. It helps you to recover quickly.