Question on ICSI and Gender Split

[Hoping4Kaylani]

Hi... I seem to recall reading a post (though I cannot say who/when/where) in which a lady was told by her doctor that certain embryologists can tend to select for more healthy male sperm, or more healthy female sperm when doing ICSI. It wasn't that they could tell which sperm were male or female, but simply had something to do with the embryologist's opinion on which sperm looked best. Is there any truth to this?

I plan to try IVF one last time for a DD after my DS3 is born, but after ending up with an all male split with my only cycle that produced viable embryos (3 healthy XY, 1 abnormal XY and 1 unknown), I fear the same will happen. My first cycle was 2 males and 1 unknown (all abnormal)... and could have been the same embryologist. Is this all just terrible luck?

I know there are no guarantees, but what are the odds of all males again? Is there any point in asking which embryologists have had the most female offspring conceived?

I appreciate your time and any feedback! Thank you. :)

[4devochki]

ICSI skews female: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2767484/

[my4leafclover]

...looks like the study from data only through 2007 did not say whether it included chromosome testing, how many embryos in each transfer and had more to do with live birth rates of male vs. female.The results could have something to do with the combination of ICSI and long term culture(day 5 transfers) combined. More research is needed on that one. Very interesting. I'm curious about how each embryologist chooses the "best" sperm for icsi also.

[nuthinbutpink]

From years on forums, this study doesn't hold true IMO. It's usually a 50/50 split and this ONLY looked at babies BORN not what was there available for transfer on day 5. Not a study that means anything when you are able to know gender before transfer and choose which one to put back.

[nuthinbutpink]

This post- http://genderdreaming.com/forum/inside-lab/7231-increasing-female-sperm.html

Carole said ICSI doesn't affect the ratio. Have to be careful with interpreting studies. You can worry yourself silly.

[Carole]

This post- http://genderdreaming.com/forum/inside-lab/7231-increasing-female-sperm.html

Carole said ICSI doesn't affect the ratio. Have to be careful with interpreting studies. You can worry yourself silly.

I looked at the studies on gender and ICSI and there's not a lot of data and some studies show a skew toward female, others toward male so if I don't think we can say whether we know if there is an effect or not- and in which direction we have the effect. More importantly, if you wanted to select a technique to try to make one gender more or less likely, this would be a very ineffective technique since the skew is usually just a little bit off from 50:50. PGS of embryos to determine gender is still the only nearly 100% means to select gender. Unless the test results were mixed up or the wrong embryo transferred, PGS lets you choose gender reliably.

As to how embryologists select sperm, we are looking for a normal appearance and some sign of life, that's all. There is no indication for gender by appearance. If normally looking or more active sperm are more likely one gender, we might accidently be selecting for gender but I think it would be more obvious in our clinic outcomes. Hope this helps, Carole

[Throwaway_panther]

Is it still true that ICSI is 50/50? I just came across the ICSI studies saying more girls and every clinic we'd possibly go ok ONLY does ICSI -- but I want a boy! DH's sperm would need a wash anyway because of some abnormal issues on his part, so not sure pushing for traditional fertilization would help us anyway.

[nicoler]

It is truly 50/50. With my first cycle 3/4 embryos were male and with my second cycle 6/9 embryos were female. And I have 2 boys I conceived naturally. Any given cycle can produce a skewed outcome but it's just coincidence. If you have enough embryos it really does even out.

I used to work as an embryologist and as far as I'm aware, ICSI is always done on a PGS cycle. It's done to maximize fertilization rate, ensure normal fertilization (ie. more than one sperm doesn't enter an egg), and allows all fertilization to happen at a similar time so that most embryos will be ready for biopsy at the same time. Also, all sperm (whether it's absolutely perfect or not), undergoes a couple washes and dilutions prior to being used for ivf (icsi or tradional fert).

Please don't worry that ivf or icsi or any other part of the HT process sways. It doesn't. Gender split comes down to luck and you have zero influence over it.