SINCE its introduction in the early 1990s, controversy has dogged the IVF
technique called intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. ICSI involves injecting a
single sperm into an egg and is used mainly when men cannot fertilise an egg
because their sperm count is too low or their sperm abnormal.
A series of recent studies has associated ICSI with infertility in children,
chromosomal abnormalities, birth defects and delays in mental development. The
latest research suggests that children created by ICSI have a raised risk of
being born with Turner鈥檚 syndrome or ambiguous genitalia
(see 鈥淕enetic roulette鈥�).
So just how safe is ICSI? The truth is we don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 a sad fact that we know very
little about the long-term side effects of any IVF technique. Most follow-up
studies have been short-term and focused on only small numbers of children.
To understand the impact of ICSI and other IVF methods, we need long-term,
large-scale research. For couples undergoing IVF, this would mean consenting to
long-term follow-up of their children. Governments will not only have to find
the money for research but take another look at privacy laws surrounding IVF.
Many countries introduced these laws to prevent discrimination against test-tube
babies, but they have seriously hampered epidemiological studies. It鈥檚 time to
strike a better balance between protecting the privacy of this generation of IVF
children and the health of the next.
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