IVF vs ICSI?

[Alison]

Hi everyone, I was wondering whether anyone else had been in the position of having either ICSI or IVF and what they'd done. To cut a long story short, our basic problem is on my side (blocked tubes). On our first attempt we managed 8 eggs, of which 4 fertilised normally, and transferred 2 "very good" 4 cell embies on day 2. It didn't work, but they decided that was because there was a problem with stagnant fluid in the tubes or something so I've had further surgery to correct that. Anyway, 2nd time around we managed 12 eggs, but were slightly surprised when they suggested ICSI. On reflection we never quite did get to the bottom of why - at the time I thought it was because they thought dh's swimmers looked "sluggish", but later on they said it was because we'd had a poor fertilisation rate the first time. Anyway, we went with their advice and were delighted that 10 fertilised, but the quality of the embies was poor - they all had fragmentation and although we were able to transfer a 6 cell and a 5 cell on day 3 they weren't as good as they should have been.<br><br>So this time if dh's sperm is OK and we have a similar number of eggs (2 big ifs I know) I'm really not sure whether we should go for just IVF or ICSI too. I think my preference would be for IVF as we seemed to get fewer but better embryos (would save us £850 too, but that sort of becomes irrelevant if one will work and one not), but then what if we don't get any embies at all?! I really don't know what to do! <br><br>I appreciate that no-one can tell me what's best (probably not even the clinic!) but would welcome any thoughts. I'd been hoping e/c might have been Sunday but they sounded a bit more cautious today so suspect it'll be early next week. <br><br>Best wishes<br><br>Alison

[maggie]

Hi Alison,<br><br>I just thought I'd let you know about my experience with ivf and icsi. I had my first ivf in June/July and had 19 eggs collected. Due to the amount of eggs, the clinic suggested we try half ivf half icsi as we weren't sure if there would be a problem with DH's sperm fertilising my eggs even though his sperm was ok. So we went with their idea as they were the experts. 8 out of 9 eggs were fertilised with ivf and 4 out of 10 with icsi. The best embryos we had were the ivf ones (which had no fragmentation), we had 2 put back and now I am pregnant with twins.<br><br>I'm not sure if the embryo quality had anything to do with being ivf'd or icsi'd or if it was just coincidence but thought i'd share this with you. <br><br>Wishing you loads and loads of luck for next week.<br><br>Maggie.xx<br>

[Alison]

Thanks Maggie - if we do get lots of eggs then splitting them sounds like a good suggestion. I'll keep you posted when I finally get to e/c. Glad to see on the "other side" that things are going well for you - I'm hoping to be following you down that path soon!<br><br>Best wishes<br><br>Alison