New procedure yields promising results

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Oct, 1996

For the 10-15% of couples who suffer the pain of infertility, there is a new option, a procedure that is proving effective even for those who are unsuccessful with in-vitro fertilization. The technique, known as micromanipulation, is designed primarily to treat problems associated with male infertility, explains Eli Reshef, clinical director of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Program, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

"Micromanipulation is performed under the microscope and involves using tiny, sharpened glass tubes to puncture a small hole in the woman's egg, thus allowing the sperm to enter. In addition, special tubes can be used to capture individual sperm and inject, them into the egg. It is an effective solution for couples in whom the male has a very low sperm count or weak-to-immobile sperm.

"There also are cases in which a woman produces eggs that have an abnormally strong coating, known as the zona pellucida, which is too tough for even normal sperm to penetrate. In these cases, we can use micromanipulation to allow regular fertilization to take place."

Moreover, the technique is an alternative for men who have had vasectomies. Sperm can be removed directly from the testes and injected into the egg, rather than the man undergoing a vasectomy reversal operation, which may or may not be successful.

"About 40% of all infertile couples have a male factor problem," Reshef indicates. "In the past, when a man had a poor semen analysis, our alternatives were to do nothing, to fix any physical problems such as varicoceles [swellings of the testicular veins], and to try in-vitro fertilization. If those options failed, there wasn't much physicians could do, aside from insemination with donor sperm.

"Now, with micromanipulation, there have been pregnancies achieved from men whose sperm were immobile and from those who had only a dozen sperm [the average male ejaculate contains roughly 200,000,000 sperm]. Its a process that can certainly provide new hope for many infertile couples."