Jun 23 2005
According to recently released figures, a high tech treatment for male infertility has become the most common therapy in Europe to help couples conceive.
But scientists although they are unsure why rising numbers of fertility clinics are carrying out ICSI, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, suspect it could be due to rising infertility in men.
The technique involves injecting a single sperm which is selected for its quality, directly into an egg.
In regular IVFv (in-vitro fertilisation) treatment, thousands of sperm are mixed with the egg in the laboratory but still have to get through the egg wall.
Dr Anders Nyboe Andersen, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, says that for the first time, ICSI was more prevalent than IVF treatment.
ICSI, which has a lower risk of failure, is more likely to be used in private clinics than public clinics, and more infertile men may be coming forward because there is now a treatment to help them.
An estimated one in six couples has an infertility problem, and according to the latest figures, released at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), the proportion of ICSI treatments versus IVF in Europe in 2002 was shown to be 52 percent.
ICSI is relatively new when compared to IVF, which was perfected 27 years ago with the birth of the first test tube baby Louise Brown, the first ICSI baby was born in 1992.
The figures demonstrate that Germany, Britain and France perform the most fertility treatments in Europe.
But Denmark offers the most treatments per million inhabitants.
About 6 percent of children born in Denmark in 2002 were conceived through fertility treatments such as ICSI and IVF.
The availability of treatments varies between countries. Belgium offers six free cycles. Denmark is not far behind with five, and the British government has promised only one free treatment for infertile couples.
Andersen says that the UK is lagging way behind the rest of Europe.
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