Embryologist Brent Anderson looks for live sperm in a semen sample. The patient has a very low sperm count; the doctor had to punch a small hole in his testicle to remove sperm. Anderson is having trouble finding enough live sperm to use to fertilize eggs.

Anderson moves the semen sample to a machine that shows it magnified on a screen. He and Dr. Manish Mehta, a urologist (pointing), look for live sperm. They find enough to go ahead with fertilization using a procedure called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI, in which sperm is injected directly into eggs.

Anderson draws sperm into a needle in preparation for ICSI.

A magnified egg ready for ICSI. A pipette gently holds the egg in place with suction (left). The line on the right is the needle which will penetrate the egg and deposit a single sperm cell inside.