The Role of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection in Non-male Factor Infertility in Maternal Age Above 39

ICSI is a method used in IVF in which a single sperm is injected directly into an oocyte. Originally ICSI was developed as a method for the treatment for couples with severe male factor infertility. In the last decades the use of ICSI has increased dramatically, especially for non-male factor infertility. In certain fertility clinics in the world ICSI is conducted in 100% of IVF cycles.

Despite the increased use of ICSI, there is no clear evidence that ICIS is more effective than conventional IVF for non-male factor infertility. There are currently few randomized controlled studies that compared the two modalities in the case of non-male factor infertility. In a randomized controlled trial that included 415 couples with non-male factor infertility and women younger than 37 years of age, conventional IVF was associated with better fertilization and implantation rates than ICSI but with comparable live birth rates. In addition, studies have not shown an advantage for ICSI over conventional IVF in the case of unexplained infertility, low oocyte yield or routine use to decrease the incidence of fertilization failure.

The proportion of women after the age of 35 undergoing IVF is constantly on the rise. Oocytes retrieved from older women are often of lower quality then oocytes retrieved from younger women. It is believed that due to the lower quality the fertilization rate is decreased in this population. However a recently published retrospective study including 745 women did not show an advantage for ICSI over conventional IVF. Contrary to what is believed, the conventional IVF group had a higher number of zygotes formed, more cycles with embryos transferred at the blastocyst stage and more cycles where embryos were available for cryopreservation.

The investigators therefore aim to perform a prospective randomized controlled study to compare between ICSI and conventional IVF in women between 39 to 44 years of age with non-male factor infertility. Male-factor infertility will be diagnosed according to the accepted semen analysis values included a semen concentration of 200 million/mL, progressive motility of 40% and a strict morphology of 4%. Patients will undergo standard clinical and hormonal investigation as usual for IVF. The treatment protocol will be in accordance with the decision of the attending physician, regardless of the research. Randomization will be between the ovaries of each patient. Following an informed consent a computer based randomization will allocate either ICSI or conventional IVF for each ovary so that for each study participant oocyte from one ovary will be randomly allocated to insemination by ICSI and the oocytes from the other ovary will be allocated to insemination by conventional IVF. As is customary in our IVF unit, 24, 72 and 96 hours after oocyte retrieval, the embryos will by studied by an embryologist for the number of cells and embryo quality.