A study reported in the Jan. 20 issue of JAMA finds that an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure for male infertility does not improve a couple’s chances of having a child as compared with conventional IVF, though the number of the procedures doubled from 1996 to 2012. The procedure, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, involves injecting a single sperm cell directly into an egg cell. In traditional IVF, sperm fertilize an egg or eggs in a laboratory fluid medium.
Mike Hsieh, MD, program director of UC San Diego’s Male Fertility and Sexual Health Program, is available to discuss the study’s findings and alternatives to IVF, such as vasectomy reversal, a microsurgical procedure which allows couples to conceive naturally at lower cost and less invasively than all forms of IVF.
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