Michelle Emblenton, a biochemist at inviTRA, talks about the benefits and drawbacks of the IMSI technique:
Well, with any technique there are always the pros and cons, so let's be positive and start with the advantages. The main advantages of intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) are that the sperm cells can be studied under very high power magnification, about 6,000 times their normal size. The study of the sperm cells is done in real time and does not need the use of any dyes in which to study the sperm, which could potentially affect their quality.
This ultra high magnification allows us to observe any potential defects there may be in the head, in the neck, in the tail, and look for things that may indicate there are problems with the sperm, such as DNA fragmentation. In general, the IMSI technique has increased pregnancy rates and decreased miscarriage rates, although this doesn't necessarily mean it will for all possible cases.
Looking at the disadvantages of IMSI, the main one is the time required in which to do this. It can take up to five or six hours and two embryologists to look at the sperm sample in this level of detail. It is a laborious task. As such, it's going to mean an increased cost for the patient. Another advantage is that it's not available in all fertility centers. It requires the center having the necessary equipment to perform the ultra high level magnification. For these reasons, IMSI is only usually performed in cases where there is very poor quality sperm or there have been repeated failures in previous IVF or IVF-ICSI cycles. More research is needed and will be interesting to see how this technique develops in the future future and how it can help progress the field of assisted reproduction.
