Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (hereinafter referred to as "ICSI") is a microscopic procedure that involves the injection of a single sperm into a woman's egg. ICSI may increase the rate of fertilization for some couples undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization.

Couples may benefit from ICSI in the following situations

• The male's sperm count is very low, the sperm have low or poor motility (percent moving or quality of movement) or there are sperm defects.
  
  
• Women whose eggs have a thicker than normal or hardened Zona Pellucida (the outermost membrane that surrounds the egg) making the egg more difficult for sperm to penetrate.
  
  
• Couples suffering from prior fertilization failure or other fertilization defects.
  
  
• As a precaution against unexpected fertilization failure.

When eggs are retrieved from a woman's ovaries, both fully mature and immature eggs are usually obtained. It is not possible to determine in advance, what proportion of these eggs will be mature. The maturity of an egg can only be determined following its retrieval. Only mature eggs can be fertilized using the technique of ICSI. In addition, even when ICSI is used, this does not guarantee successful fertilization of some or all the mature eggs obtained.

ICSI may infrequently result in damage to the egg leading to its degeneration and failure to develop.

There is no evidence to indicate the ICSI procedure itself, results in any increase in congenital, physical or genetic abnormalities in children born following its use, in excess of the normal and expected age-matched incidence in children born of naturally conceived pregnancies. However, if there is an underlying genetic reason for a male's low sperm count, low motility or sperm defects, this trait may be inherited by any children conceived from that sperm. Under these circumstances, the transmission of the sperm defect is caused by an abnormality inherent in the sperm itself, and not by the use of ICSI to facilitate fertilization.