ICSI - has anyone had experience of this?

[pupuce]

A friend is going through it and she seemed to say that it is expensive and chances of success are fairly low (15%?).... anyonme out there know more ?
Thanks

but it does work for some - my friend had twins with ICSI. Good luck to your friend.x

I know someone who had it and it worked first time, not second.

Yes - went through ICSI and (after IVF failed) it worked 1st time!! Good luck to your friend. Feel free to ask if there's anything specific you want to know.

This is useful - THANK YOU.... pardon my ignorance but ICSI is it always when you need to remove the sperm antibodies from the sperm?

i thought icsi was simply injecting the sperm into the egg, ie not just gently introducing them, ie when sperm have no motility of their own.

My friend's partner had a vasectomy successfully reversed but his sperm (whilst good mobility and quantity) gets "attacked" before it gets to do the good stuff - so they need to remove the antibodies.

ICSI is where they inject the sperm directly into the egg. It's used when the 'problem' is thought to be sperm that's not very active/mobile (there's a name for this - can't remember though)

Motility - that's the word. Obviously Pupuce, it's used for other reasons too. The actual process from the woman's point of view is exactly the same as for IVF if I remember rightly.

I'm currently pregnant after our first try at ICSI - the procedure is just the same as IVF up until the fertilising the egg part as Mum2Girls said. It's usually used if it's believed the sperm will not be able to swim to the egg so they are put straight into the centre of the egg. In actual fact, the success rate for ICSI in the hospital we used was better than for straight IVF. It is a touch more expensive, but from what I can remember, only about 500 quid more.

I too have had ICSI, like BakedBean said, it is only slightly more expensive. I was successful on my 3rd go and then somehow managed to concieve my 2nd dd naturally after that, god knows how we managed that....
Wish your friend the best of luck

I had 6 lots of ICSI and the 6th attempt was successful! I'm not sure about the price (never had 'standard' IVF) and I believe at the clinic where I had it, success rates were similar.
Best of luck to your friend ... x

I had ICSI and it worked first time resulting in twins. Had it following DH's testicular cancer. We were told that ISCI would be our only hope of ever conceiving due to poor sperm quality/motility but are now expecting a new baby as a result of a spontaneous conception. Will have to take notice of GP nagging me about contraception post birth now! The statistics we were quoted for success rates were a bit higher for ICSI than for regular IVF. In terms of cost it was a bit more expensive but not that much.Fingers crossed for your friend Pupuce.

We have got to have ICSI and are due to start soon. I'm a bit worried as I'm very overweight but still looking forward to it!

I have changed my name for this. I have had a 1st time successful ICSI treatment. Appros £4500 for end result of a fantastic baby boy.

ICSI here too and first time success. Success rates vary enormously between clinics. In my clinic, when I was cycling, pg rate was highest with ICSI but live birth rate was highest with IVF. So effectively there was a higher m/c rate with ICSI. PG rate per embryo transfer was 50% IVF, 57% ICSI. Live birth rate was 42.4% IVF and 40.5% ICSI. Pretty good though given that the 'natural' conception rate is something like 25%! ICSI was £700 more expensive than standard IVF. About 3.5k excluding drugs, scans, bloods, ovarian stress test and hycosy. Good luck to your friend.