Hey Guys!!

I know its been awhile but my hubby and I took a much needed break. Well, he just had a procedure done to remove a stricture in his urethra to help with his retrograde ejaculation. Well after the procedure the doctor called and told us that even with the procedure us getting preggo naturally wouldn't be likely. He told us that we should do ICSI. Well whats the difference between ICSI and IVF, and has anyone here done it? What is the pricing for ICSI? Hope everyone doing well and that there have been lots of BFP's since I've been gone!!

Kia:angel::angel:

Hi Kia ICSI is something that is used in conjunction with IVF you go through the normal IVF procedures but with ICSI they take a single sperm and inject it into the egg, this can give you a better fertilization rate than what IVF without ICSI would as normally they would just put the sperm and eggs in a dish and see how many fertilize. Im not sure of the cost as it depends on where you live. Hope this helps a bit. All the best.

Cashahn xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Welcome back Kia! I'm glad to hear you're still hanging in there and thinking of your next options. I just did IVF with ICSI in March (which unfortunately was a BFN) and I'm currently stimming for my second shot. With my first, they took 19 eggs, 17 of which were mature, and 15 of those fertilized with ICSI. My husband didn't do so well on the hamster egg test (his sperm didn't penetrate the egg well), so ICSI was recommended to us and it really worked well. In the end, our BFN had nothing to do with the ICSI. At our clinic, ICSI is about another $1,000 on top of the IVF procedure. Of course, prices differ by REs. Good luck with everything. Keep us posted and hope you're cycling with us again soon! - April

Hi Kia,

I also did ICSI with our IVf cycle. The cost was comparable to what April said...i think it was about $1500 additional.
But it is worth it because in the end you KNOW that the sperm is getting into the egg because its forced in there!

Then whether or not it matures is up to God, but at least its an extra push in the right direction.

I have read stories about people going thru the whole IVF process (shots, stims, retrieval, etc.) and then NOTHING...the sperm couldn't fertilize the egg and they have no embryos to work with. I'm sure that doesn't happen too often, but it would be devastating to go thru everything and end up with nothing!

As you can see, I'm all for ICSI.

:wave:I also did ICSI with my first IVF cycle back in '06. Sadly, it ended up BFN, but I was able to do a frozen one from that cycle. That, unfortunately ended in a chemical pregnancy. But, my next fresh cycle which I did ICSI for again, I got my BFP!! My daughter just turned 13 months. So, yeah, I'm all for it!!:D I'll probably be doing IVF again this July and will most likely do ICSI again; it definitely "ensures" fertilization. My clinic I think charged about $1500 also but fortunately for me, my insurance picked up the tab!;)

Hi Kia,

I also did ICSI with my IVF. It seems like you have a much better chance because they hand pick a good looking sperm and then inject it directly into the egg. I am currently 9 weeks pg. with twins from this procedure, so of course I'm a fan!!:D

As for the cost, I'm not really sure. I'm one of the lucky ones that live in Illinois, where it is required for the insurance to cover at least 3 tries of IVF!! So, I'm not sure, but around $1000-$1500 sounds about right.

Good luck!

Thanks Guys!!