New ray of hope for male infertility patients

Bloom IVF reported the first live birth from India, using Single-Sperm Freezing with the novel Sperm Vitrification Device (Sperm VD) for a non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) published in the scientific journal Indian Obstetrics & Gynaecology, spreading cheer amidst the medical fraternity during this trying pandemic period. A 36-year-old couple recently became proud parents to a healthy baby girl, thanks to this breakthrough technique at one of the Bloom IVF clinics - Fortis Bloom IVF Centre at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon. This news brings a fresh glimmer of hope to many couples who aspire to be parents someday and are struggling with infertility.

Till recently, very few sperms could not be frozen and recovered effectively by any technology. However, it is now possible to do this with the advancement of this Sperm Vitrification Device. As low as 1 or 2 sperms can be frozen & recovered and used for injecting eggs and achieving embryos to give rise to pregnancy. This breakthrough technology will enable a lot of males suffering from severe low sperm count (severe oligospermia), occasional low sperm count (cryptospermia) or zero sperm count (obstructive / non-obstructive azoospermia) to achieve pregnancy.

Male Infertility Treatment using Sperm VD

In nearly 40-50% infertile couples, male partner is responsible for fertility problems. Amongst these male partners, as much as 5-10% have very low or zero sperm count. Normally in these patients, pregnancies are achieved by the process of ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) in which eggs are removed from the wife and are injected with a single sperm using a machine called Micromanipulator. With this advanced Sperm Vitrification Device (Sperm VD), sperms can be retrieved from the testes by TESA/Micro-TESE (microscopic or standard testicular biopsy) and frozen before the ICSI.

Many times, in patients with azoospermia - if they give 5-20 semen samples, occasionally in one of these semen samples we may find few sperms that can be frozen and stored using the Sperm VD. After few sperm are frozen, it is followed by an egg pick up, thawing of the sperm, ICSI treatment, transfer and pregnancy.

What is Azoospermia?

The lack of presence of sperms in the ejaculate is called Azoospermia. This can be due to problems in sperm production (non-obstructive azoospermia) or due to obstruction to the outflow of semen, during ejaculation (obstructive azoospermia). Reproductive tract obstruction can be acquired as a result of infection, trauma, iatrogenic injury which can occur during bladder neck, pelvic, abdominal or inguinal-scrotal surgery or can be inherited congenital condition; most of which can be either treated with antibiotics or corrected with microsurgery. In patients who fail with these treatments, one can do testicular biopsy either with the naked eye or using the microscope (Micro-TESE) to extract sperms. These sperms can then be used to give pregnancy with the technique of ICSI.

Challenges Faced in The Past

It has been found that one in eight couples face problems to conceive their first child and one in six face fertility issues in conceiving a subsequent child. The challenge for so many years in treating male infertility has been in freezing the small number of spermatozoa found in these cases as conventional freezing techniques led to high sperm damage and post thaw poor sperm recovery.

The Revolutionary Treatment

With the advent of this Sperm VD technology, the above problems can now be tackled by effectively freezing and recovering very few sperms. Despite the many complexities, Bloom IVF offers solutions to assist in all kinds of male factor infertility issues and has consistently helped thousands of such couples in achieving pregnancy for over 25 years now.

Pre-natal sex selection and sex determination are illegal in India. It is a punishable offence.

To know more please visit our website https://www.bloomivf.com/aboutus.html

About Bloom IVF Group

With 30+ years of experience, Bloom IVF Group is one of India’s premiere fertility & IVF services provider having 10 fertility & IVF centres across India including at Lilavati Hospital Mumbai and Fortis Hospitals Delhi Gurugram & Mohali Chandigarh. With numerous awards & accolades to their credit, Bloom IVF has expertise in treating repeated IVF failure patients, egg freezing, and male infertility treatment including zero sperm count with advanced state-of-the-art IVF technologies.

Call at 9871717305 or email at contact@bloomivfgroup.com for more information.