New test tube method will benefit childless

The technique involves the extraction of a single healthy sperm from the man’s testicles using a needle. The already extracted ovum (the female egg) is incubated with this sperm in the test tube for a couple of days and the resultant embryo is then transferred into the woman’s womb.

The Capital’s first such successful operation was performed by a medical team headed by Dr Anoop Kumar Gupta of the Delhi IVF and Fertility Clinic, which culminated in the delivery of a female baby on January 5. The baby was born to a couple who could not have a child for six years. Though born prematurely, the baby weighed 2.1 kg and was in good health, the doctors said.

"Though in-vitro (outside the womb) fertilisation (IVF) is by now a common operation, this is for the first time that it was applied along with Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), in which sperms had to be extracted from the husband’s testes," Dr Gupta said, while maintaining that the man had a nil sperm count.

The sperms are first processed through testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) and made fit for fertilisation with the ovum, the female egg. The operation costs only about Rs 30,000 compared to the price abroad which is at least 10-times or more, Dr Gupta added.

The ICSI technique can be beneficial for thousands of males who have a low sperm count or no sperms in their semen. According to the fertility experts, such men often have some healthy sperms in their testicles which can be used for fertilisation of the egg in a test tube. The chances of conception through this method in infertile couples are 25-30 per cent. But the infertile males prefer this to using donors sperms foran assisted pregnancy.

Apollo Hospital has also formally thrown open its new assisted Reproductive Unit for assisting the childless couples in getting test tube babies through IVF.