Infertility Treatments
PICSI (physiological ICSI)
The PICSI technique improves pregnancy rates and reduces the number of miscarriages following IVF because of a male factor. The PICSI method is indicated when male infertility is detected and microfertilization is required but also when a high percentage of sperm DNA fragmentation is seen in the DNA fragmentation test.
This is a new way of sperm selection that is applied to the laboratory of the MITERA IVF unit and is a further step of the sperm selecting process based on its biochemical properties. The PICSI method aims at selecting the most functionally adequate and mature sperm to be used for ICSI microfertilization.
In conventional ICSI microfertilization, sperm cells are selected by embryologists based on their morphological criteria and mobility. With the PICSI technique, the spermatozoa are placed on a special dish with a special coating of hyaluronic acid. Only mature sperm with fragmented DNA and normal nucleus are bound to this coating and are thus selected by embryologists.
Studies have shown that spermatozoa bound by hyaluronic acid show fewer chromosomal abnormalities and a lower DNA fragmentation rate. In this fashion of sperm selection, we achieve the creation of better quality embryos, i.e. with a higher probability of implantation and achieving pregnancy. This process mimics normal fertilization where only mature sperm will manage to fertilize the egg.
