Has anyone had the FISH sperm test done?

[MrsJT]

Hi a clinic in Spain has suggested my husband has the FISH sperm test done? I've never heard of it and uk clinics don't seem to do it.

I'm just wondering if it is useful? Apparently it costs at least £400 but should show if the sperm has genetic issues which could be causing our failed ivf cycles.

A website says it's an 'Assessment of sperm aneuploidy involves fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH)'...

Any help much appreciated 😊

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi MrsJT. FISH is available in the UK, so you would need to contact hfea.co.uk and find out where. I cannot tell you, as it is seen as advertising. FISH is a method that can be used to detect small deletions and duplications that are not visible using microscope analysis. It can also be used to detect how many chromosomes of a certain type are present in each cell and to confirm rearrangements that are suspected after microscope analysis. FISH looks specifically at the one specific area of a chromosome only. It uses a very small chemical that glows brightly when it detects the specific region on a chromosome. A scientist uses a special microscope to look at the chromosome and see how many bright spots are present. When a person has a deletion, only one bright spot can be seen instead of two (one on each chromosome). When a person has duplication, three bright spots can be seen instead of just two. I hope this doesn’t confuse you more, and I wish you well if you do decide to go ahead with it. Diane