This study addresses the incidence of failed (0%) and suboptimal (<50%) fertilization after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), variation in the ICSI fertilization rate for specific couples, and the causes of fertilization failure and abnormal fertilization after ICSI. Failed fertilization occurred in only 37 of 1343 cycles (3%). The risk of failure was highest (37%) when only one oocyte was injected, and was lowest (0.8%) when five or more oocytes were collected. The incidence of suboptimal fertilization and the variation in the fertilization rate were studied in 87 couples who each had three cycles of ICSI in which four oocytes were injected with ejaculated spermatozoa. Approximately 74% of these couples achieved >50% fertilization in every cycle. Only 26% of the couples had <50% fertilization in one or more cycles, and most of these (17%) had only a single cycle with suboptimal fertilization. Only four of the 87 couples (5%) had suboptimal fertilization in all three cycles. The difference between the maximum and minimum fertilization rate for a couple was used as an index of variation of the fertilization rate. It was found that 47 couples (54%) had 0–25% variation, 33 couples (38%) had 26–50% fertilization and only seven couples (8%) had >50% variation. The causes of failed and abnormal fertilization were studied in unfertilized and abnormally fertilized oocytes after staining with Hoechst 33342. In total, 1005 unfertilized oocytes were studied, of which 828 (82%) were still at metaphase II and 177 (18%) were activated. Most of the oocytes (83%) contained a spermatozoon and, in the majority of these oocytes, the sperm head was partially or completely decondensed. Hence, failure of oocyte activation was the principal cause of fertilization failure. A similar pattern was observed in activated, unfertilized oocytes, although there was a higher incidence of intact spermatozoa in these oocytes compared with metaphase II, unfertilized oocytes. Interestingly, 56% of the activated oocytes contained a decondensed sperm head which was not processed into a male pronucleus. A total of 169 abnormally fertilized oocytes was also studied. Two anomalies were found: digyny due to retention of the second polar body and its subsequent transformation into a third pronucleus, and abnormal pronuclear size and number.