Breaking the Silence: New Tools Give Hope to Couples with Unexplained Infertility

Charlottesville, VA (September 2025) – For millions of couples, the heartbreaking diagnosis of “unexplained infertility” offers no answers and few treatment options other than pursuing IVF. Despite male infertility contributing to nearly half of all infertility cases, traditional testing has long relied on semen analysis alone, often overlooking critical aspects of sperm function.

PS Fertility, a leader in reproductive science, is changing that reality. With the introduction of its groundbreaking diagnostic test, PS Detect, couples finally have a tool that moves beyond standard measures of sperm count, motility, and morphology to assess something far more important: sperm competence.

Conventional semen analysis has remained largely unchanged for decades. Yet research shows that 20–30% of men with “normal” results are still infertile. This gap has left couples searching for answers, especially when no clear cause could be found.

PS Fertility’s pioneering research revealed that the presence of phosphatidylserine (PS) on the outer surface of sperm cells is essential for fertilization. The company’s diagnostic innovation—measuring the percentage of sperm that express PS—produces a unique metric known as the PS Score.

“The PS Score is giving new insights and new understanding to couples across the nation,” said co-founder and CEO Kevin Combs. “We are detecting underlying issues that just a few years ago were undetected—giving couples answers where before there were none.”

Clinical studies show that the PS Score not only correlates with fertility status but also helps identify which men could benefit from treatment. For example, men undergoing varicocele repair, a common procedure for enlarged scrotal veins, saw their PS Scores improve to levels comparable with proven fertile donors. In fact, 25% of patients trying to conceive naturally achieved pregnancy after the procedure.  

PS Detect is an ideal test for couples considering intrauterine insemination (IUI) or conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF). A low PS Score for a male could mean that the couple is not a good candidate for IUI or conventional IVF. Knowing their PS Score could save a couple time and money from avoiding fertility treatments that are not likely to yield a pregnancy.

For couples who have spent years searching for explanations, these findings represent more than science—they represent hope.

By offering a more complete understanding of male fertility, PS Detect is empowering both patients and physicians to make better-informed decisions. This new tool is already transforming how infertility is diagnosed and treated, giving couples a clearer path forward.

“Unexplained infertility doesn’t have to mean unanswered questions anymore,” added Combs. “With PS Detect, we’re breaking the silence and giving couples new reasons to hope.”