INFERTILE couples who have not responded to conventional fertility treatments could have children through a new specialised procedure at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.
Seven couples are currently awaiting the birth of their children, including two sets of twins, after undergoing the treatment which involves injecting the woman's eggs with individual sperm.
The procedure offers fresh hope to men whose sperm count is too low to achieve invitro fertilisation (IVF), according to Professor Robbie Harrison, the director of the hospital's Human Assisted Reproduction Unit.
And it could mean that in future even men with apparently father test tube babies, he said.
The intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment costs £1,500 per couple and is free to medical card holders. Only couples who have been referred to the unit through their GPs or gynaecologists will be considered for the treatment.
"The ICSI treatment is part of a revolution for dealing with male fertility," said Prof Harrison. "If you're an infertile couple and would like to have a baby and donor insemination doesn't work or isn't suitable, then this treatment could revolutionise things for you."
The ICSI technique is similar to IVF, which involves placing male sperm next to a ripe egg and allowing it to enter the egg to fertilise it. In cases where the man has a low sperm count or poor quality sperm, the egg is often not fertilised because the sperm is unable to penetrate it.
The ICSI technique solves this problem by selecting only healthy male sperm and injecting one sperm into each egg with a needle thinner than a human hair. Up to three fertilised eggs are then implanted back in the woman.
Professor Harrison said the treatment has led to "the biology of reproduction being rewritten. In theory, it shouldn't work because what you are doing is totally going against nature's wad of selecting sperm, and you're damaging the egg in the process, and yet you're ending up with perfect babies."
However, Prof Harrison stressed that ICSI is not suitable for every infertile couple. "Patients have to be fully investigated and have to make sure that it really is the right thing to do," he said.
The ICSI technique, which was pioneered in the Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Brussels, has a success rate of up to 30 per cent, which is comparable with IVF.
The Rotunda's senior embryologist, Mr Andrew Gordon, trained for 10 months on the specialised ICSI laboratory equipments before treating the of 34 couples in November.
Of these, 28 have completed the treatment and seven pregnancies have resulted. The results of she other six are not known yet.
"Considering the learning curve involved, it's quite early days to say it's very successful, but we're quite encouraged by the degree of success we've had in such a short time," said Mr Gordon.