Male Infertility
No sperm? Dead sperm? Azoospermia?
We have helped many men become fathers. Everybody knows that women may have problems conceiving children. But men can also have difficulties, and it is as common as infertility in women (around 40%). Some men have low numbers of sperm, or swimmers that don't work well. Others may have dead sperm or no sperm at all. And some men are unable to produce an ejaculate. In such cases, we provide medication for 1-4 months to help produce sperm, which can then be obtained using different methods listed below. After evaluation, the doctor can recommend the most suitable procedure for the man.
- TESA
Testicular Sperm Aspiration refers to the procedure used to obtain viable sperm from the male reproductive tract. This procedure is used to treat male infertility due to absence of or extremely low sperm count in the male ejaculate. TESA involves a needle biopsy of the testicle. This is done as an office procedure using sedation or local anesthesia. A very fine needle is gently inserted into the testicle. The amount of tissue obtained is low because the thin needle removes only a thin sliver of tissue. The sperm sample collected will be frozen and is intended to be used with IVF-ICSI (in vitro fertilization with Intra-cytoplasmic Sperm Injection) using the wife’s eggs.
- Sperm Mapping
Sperm Mapping, also called Testicular Mapping or Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) mapping, is a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure that “maps” out the location of sperm in the testis. The technique is designed to benefit severely infertile men including those diagnosed with azoospermia. The procedure is performed using a very fine needle, under sedation or general anesthesia in the clinic. It allows the surgeon to more intensively identify sperms in more than one location in the testis with less risk of testis damage. It can determine where the sperms are located as well as the quantity of sperms available in those locations. The sperms found will be frozen and later used to fertilize the patient’s wife using an in vitro procedure called IVF-ICSI.
- Micro-TESE
Most men diagnosed with "non-obstructive azoospermia" now have hope to make their wives pregnant with sperm obtained using a modern technique called "microsurgical testis sperm extraction" or "micro-TESE". This new procedure allows for sperm to be found even if one or more sperm retrievals done earlier using different methods did not produce usable sperm for in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The new technique, unlike the other methods, allows the surgeon to actually see the tissue thereby enabling him to more intensively identify the microscopic tubules in the testis that may contain mature sperm. Once these tiny tubules are retrieved, a highly experienced laboratory specialist extracts the sperm from them for in-vitro fertilization. Fakih IVF is so far the only center in the Middle East and South-East Asia that provides this technique. For more information on micro-TESE, please click here
New! We now have technology called IMSI, which enables us to select the best sperm!
IMSI stands for “Intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection”, a new scientific development which may increase pregnancy rates in couples undergoing in vitro fertilization. It is a technique where the sperm cells are magnified under a high powered microscope in order to enable the embryologists to select the best and healthiest sperm from the semen sample before injecting them directly into the eggs. The selected sperm are more likely to fertilize the egg and produce a good quality embryo, hence a better chance for a successful pregnancy.
Using the standard techniques, sperm is magnified a maximum of 400 times and we are able to see the head, neck and tail, but are unable to see any further details such as harmful empty spaces in the sperm, the shape and smoothness of the nucleus. With IMSI, however, we are able to magnify the image up to 6000 times, and are therefore able to see those details and select the good quality sperms and discard those with abnormal contents.
This new technology also enables us to pick the sperms that contain better DNA content, increasing the chance of fertilization as well as conceiving genetically healthy babies.
At Fakih IVF, we use the IMSI technique when necessary, especially for couples where the husband has sperm problems, and at no extra cost.
Start thinking about your treatment... contact us for any further information.
