IVF, apart from infertility treatment, has also a diagnostic value as it gives an indication that the oocytes and sperm of a couple can interact. In some cases of unexplained infertility we discover a possible cause for infertility and may obtain useful information, such as no attachment of sperm on the zona pelucida, low sperm motility after a few hours of culture etc. The laboratory conditions and culture media are optimized so that they do not affect fertilization in any way.

Fertilization rates do not reflect the quality of resulting embryos and a low fertilization rate should not cause worries about the outcome of IVF.