Testicular Sperm Aspiration (TESA)

What Is Testicular Sperm Aspiration ?

TESA is a procedure performed for men who are having sperm retrieved for IVF/ICSI. It is performed under local anaesthetic in the operating room or office, and it is timed to coincide with the egg retrieval of their female spouse. The testicle is punctured with a needle, and tissue and sperm are aspirated. Men who have undergone a vasectomy and have obstructive azoospermia undergo TESA. When TESA doesn’t produce enough tissue or sperm, an open testis biopsy is necessary.

For males with obstructive azoospermia brought on by a previous vasectomy or an infection who are having their sperm harvested for IVF/ICSI, a treatment called PESA is used. The egg retrieval of their female spouse is timed to take place while they are under local anaesthetic in the operating room or office.

Men may undergo this surgical sperm retrieval technique

• If their testicles are not producing enough sperm or a non-obstructive kind of azoospermia
• If, because of some obstruction, the sperms are prevented from dispersing to the semen or Adverse Azoospermia

Their ability to reproduce may be hampered by extremely low sperm production. In these circumstances, TESA has been a significant advancement in directly removing sperm from a man’s testis. If sperm is extracted from a man’s testis or epididymis, he may be able to father a child despite having azoospermia. Men with non-obstructive azoospermia, in which the epididymis cannot produce any sperm, undergo this surgery.

How Is TESA Performed?

A needle is inserted into the testis during testicular sperm aspiration, and fluid and tissue are aspirated under negative pressure. The sperm cells are then extracted from the sample via ICSI, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, in the embryology lab.

To fertilise an egg, sperm cells may not necessarily need to be mature and go via the epididymis. They require ICSI, a procedure in which one sperm is extracted from the semen and inserted straight into the egg, as the testicular sperm are immature.

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