What Does Research Suggest About Unexplained Infertility and Egg Quality?
September 3, 2025
September 3, 2025

There is a particular kind of fertility frustration that Pune's IT couples know well. Reports come back normal. The IVF clinic says the embryos looked good. The uterus is fine. And yet the cycle failed again, or the pregnancy stopped at seven weeks, or conception simply has not happened across eighteen months of trying. Unexplained infertility is the diagnosis that gets written down when nothing else fits, and in Pune, this is a pattern that fertility specialists are encountering with growing regularity.
ICPRM approaches this from a direction most fertility clinics do not take. The centre specialises entirely in reproductive immunology, investigating the immune mechanisms that govern implantation and early pregnancy maintenance. For Pune couples who have received thorough fertility care and still do not have an explanation, ICPRM offers a specific clinical lens: whether the immune system is silently preventing pregnancies from continuing. The IVF failure specialist in Pune team at ICPRM has built its clinical work around precisely these cases, where everything visible is normal and something invisible is not.
Sedentary working conditions are not just a fitness concern. Prolonged sitting, minimal physical activity, and the hormonal consequences of chronic professional stress have measurable effects on reproductive health that rarely get addressed directly. In women, sustained high cortisol suppresses the pulsatile GnRH release that governs the menstrual cycle, leading to subtle ovulatory irregularities that may not even register as clinically abnormal. Sleep disruption, which is endemic in Pune's software industry due to global team schedules, disrupts the circadian hormonal rhythms that coordinate follicle development and luteal phase function.
These disruptions create a reproductive environment that is suboptimal in ways that standard panels are not designed to detect. AMH may be normal, FSH within range, endometrium appearing receptive on scan, and the cycle still failing. When this happens repeatedly, the reproductive immune environment becomes the most clinically relevant next area of investigation. Stress-related hormonal dysregulation does not just affect ovulation; it influences cytokine production and immune cell behaviour in ways that can directly impair implantation.
Implantation is one of the most immunologically complex events in human biology. The embryo arrives in the uterus carrying genetic material that is, from the immune system's perspective, partially foreign. The maternal immune system must identify this material and make a rapid, precise decision to protect rather than eliminate it. This decision depends on a chain of molecular signals, including the presentation of paternal antigens by trophoblast cells and the corresponding response from uterine NK cells and T regulatory cells. When this chain is broken, the embryo does not embed, or it embeds briefly and then fails.
Research in reproductive immunology has consistently identified specific immune imbalances in women with recurrent implantation failure and unexplained pregnancy loss: elevated NK cell cytotoxicity, disrupted Th1/Th2 cytokine ratios, and reduced T regulatory cell activity are among the most documented findings. Lymphocyte immunotherapy, the basis of ICPRM's ImmuLIT procedure, addresses several of these mechanisms simultaneously by introducing the tolerance signal that the maternal immune system has not been generating on its own.
At ICPRM, fertility investigations are led by Dr. Mugdha Raut and Dr. Mohan Raut with a strong focus on uncovering immune-related causes of repeated reproductive failure. For couples whose history includes reproductive infections, multiple miscarriages, or years of unexplained infertility, the top infertility specialists in Pune at ICPRM conduct a reproductive immunology workup that specifically targets the mechanisms relevant to implantation failure and early pregnancy loss.
When immune factors are confirmed, ImmuLIT® is delivered in a single outpatient sitting over approximately three hours. The procedure is straightforward, requires no admission, and is designed to fit into the lives of working couples without significant disruption. The follow-up protocol is structured and remote-friendly, which matters for Pune's professional population. Among confirmed immune-mediated cases, approximately 80 percent of patients go on to have successful pregnancies following the procedure.
The treatment pathway is designed to be thorough without being complicated, and accessible without compromising clinical rigour.
Pune couples tend to approach medical decisions methodically. They have usually done significant research by the time they reach ICPRM, and they are looking for something that is clinically specific, not a generic second opinion. The best infertility doctors in Pune at ICPRM offer a depth of specialisation in reproductive immunology that is genuinely different from what general fertility clinics provide. The centre is located at The NewLife Hospital - Meera Multispeciality, 710/B4, Shankarsheth Road, Bhawanipeth, Pune 411004. And we also have online consultation.
There is also a psychological dimension to finding an explanation after unexplained infertility. When investigation reveals a specific immune mechanism, the shift from uncertainty to directed treatment changes how couples engage with the process. The next attempt is no longer another unknown; it is a clinically prepared step. For many couples, that shift in itself is part of what makes ICPRM's approach meaningful beyond the procedure.
1. Could my irregular sleep from night-shift work be contributing to immune fertility problems?
Circadian disruption affects cytokine production and immune cell regulation. While it is rarely the sole cause of immune-mediated implantation failure, it can contribute to the conditions that allow immune dysregulation to develop and persist. ICPRM's investigation will clarify whether immune dysfunction is present.
2. We have had two failed frozen embryo transfers with good-grade embryos. Is immune evaluation the right next step?
Two failed transfers with good embryo quality is one of the clearest indicators for reproductive immunology evaluation. If the embryo is not the issue, the uterine immune environment is the most logical next area to investigate, and that is precisely what ICPRM examines.
3. Does ICPRM work alongside our current IVF clinic in Pune?
Yes. ICPRM's role is specifically the immune evaluation and ImmuLIT procedure. Your IVF clinic continues to manage the stimulation, retrieval, and embryology aspects of your care. The two approaches are designed to be complementary.
4. How is unexplained infertility investigated differently at ICPRM compared to a standard fertility clinic?
Standard fertility clinics investigate hormones, anatomy, and sperm. ICPRM investigates the immune environment of implantation, including NK cell activity, cytokine profiles, and immune tolerance markers. These are different biological layers, and the standard investigation panel does not reach the immune one.
5. What is the recovery time after the ImmuLIT procedure?
There is no significant recovery period. The procedure is outpatient, involves a blood draw from the partner and an intradermal or subcutaneous administration to the mother, and most patients return to normal activity the same day or the following day.
6. Is 80 percent success rate applicable to all patients who undergo ImmuLIT?
The approximately 80 percent figure applies to appropriately selected candidates, meaning patients in whom a specific immune mechanism has been confirmed through investigation. Patient selection is a critical part of the process, which is why investigation precedes treatment rather than being bypassed.
7. Can stress itself cause immune-mediated infertility, or does it only affect hormones?
Chronic stress affects both hormonal and immune pathways. Elevated cortisol suppresses regulatory immune cells and shifts cytokine balance toward a pro-inflammatory state, which can impair implantation. This is an active area of reproductive medicine research, and its clinical relevance is increasingly recognised.

M.D.D.G.O, FCRI
Consultant Gynaecologist & Obstetrician
Clinical Reproductive Immunologist

M.D., D.G.O., F.C.R.I.(ASRI)
Consultant Gynaecologist & Obstetrician
Clinical Reproductive Immunologist