Period power: is menstrual blood a missed opportunity in women’s health?

The inventor of the first FDA-approved diagnostic period pad believes menstrual blood is one of medicine’s most overlooked opportunities, with research indicating its clinical relevance for important biomarkers such as fertility, perimenopause and endometriosis, as well as the early detection of cervical cancer. 

In January 2024, the company behind the world’s first diagnostic menstrual pad received its first FDA clearance. Its Q-Pad™ and A1c Test allows women with diabetes to monitor their glucose levels using menstrual blood samples, as an alternative to standard venous blood tests.

It’s been hailed as a groundbreaking solution for women living with diabetes, but this is just the beginning for Qvin, the company behind the Q-Pad. Getting the green light from the FDA marks a much broader opportunity for testing important biomarkers in millions more who menstruate across the globe.

For Qvin’s co-founder and CEO, Dr Sara Naseri, a medical doctor and scientist, who began researching the potential of menstrual blood for preventative healthcare and early disease detection almost a decade ago, it was an overlooked opportunity.

“We’re constantly getting information about what is going on in our body, we’re tracking our steps, our sleep, our pulse, our sweat and yet women bleed every month and we’d never thought about how we could make use of that,” Naseri tells Femtech World.

But convincing scientists that they should be studying something which in many cultures has traditionally been a taboo subject was not straightforward.

“It’s been very hard to break taboos in the medical community,” she admits. “When we first started, labs refused to run samples of menstrual blood, so we had to build our own clinical laboratory.”

Dr Sara Naseri, CEO and co-founder, Qvin.

So, how does it work?

Each Q-Pad includes a removable strip which collects the menstrual blood. Once it has a sufficient sample (usually after around two to four hours of wear), the strip is sent off to a CLIA-Certified (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) laboratory for testing.

The Qvin A1c Q-Pad Test Kit measures average blood sugar over a three-month period, by testing the A1c biomarker for people with diabetes— one of the most commonly used tests to monitor diabetes and pre-diabetes. The individual receives their results via the Qvin app which they can then use to monitor their blood sugar over time as well as sharing the lab report with their clinician.

“It fits in with a woman’s day-to-day life and makes it easier for them to stay on top of their health,” says Naseri. “It is utilising what is already going on in the body.”

Photo supplied by Qvin.

Important biomarkers in menstrual blood

Naseri and her team have now collaborated with researchers at a number of leading academic institutions, including Stanford University School of Medicine, to prove the clinical relevance of menstrual blood for a number of important biomarkers.

As well as proving the Q-Pad’s efficacy for monitoring blood sugar levels in diabetes, they’ve published peer-reviewed research validating other biomarkers that can also be monitored, including anaemia, fertility, perimenopause, endometriosis, and thyroid health.

“Menstrual blood is blood,” Naseri explains. “You can find a lot of information that you would in systemic blood, but on top of that, you have very specific biomarkers for reproductive organs that you wouldn’t find elsewhere.”

She adds: “Right now, we’re just scratching the surface. We’re looking at how menstrual blood can be useful in many areas of women’s health.”

Photo supplied by Qvin.

A tool for the early detection of cervical cancer

One of the most promising areas of focus for Qvin is how the Q-Pad can be used to detect High-Risk Human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer.

Its first study, funded by the Women’s Cancer Innovations Fund of Stanford University Cancer Institute, found that among women who tested positive for HPV, the menstrual pad showed “highly concordant results” compared with standard clinician-collected sampling such as the pap smear test—the most widely applied screening method for cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide and the second highest cause of women’s cancer-related mortality. While most cases are preventable through screening and access to appropriate treatment, many women face barriers in accessing regular pap tests, especially in developing countries where 80% of all cervical cancers occur.

The study found that overall 94% of participants preferred the menstrual pad over clinician-collected tests, while 12 patients were found to be positive for HPV on the menstrual pad sample but negative on the clinician-collected specimen.

This indicates a significant opportunity, Naseri says, to address some of the major challenges in the early detection and prevention of cervical cancer.

“Cervical cancer is very treatable, but many women do not have access to, or are not comfortable with pap smears for religious or cultural reasons. It’s an invasive procedure for a lot of women… and for those women the need is great,” she says.

A shift in perceptions

In October, Time Magazine named the Q-Pad one of its best inventions of 2024. It is among a number of other products in the femtech space using menstrual blood and menstruation products to help better detect and diagnose reproductive health conditions.

Daye has launched a diagnostic tampon, while theblood is developing a similar testing product that would make more holistic health recommendations based not just on biomarkers but cycle, nutrition, lifestyle and reported symptoms. The idea that menstrual blood is something to be ashamed of now seems a bit shortsighted.

“I have absolutely noticed a shift [in attitudes],” says Naseri.

“When I think about the early days of Qvin it was really difficult to have this conversation. If you look at what we’ve achieved, [now] it’s not about opinion, it’s about the data and I think that is something we’ll continue to see as we publish more. This is just the beginning.”

With so far to go in medicine’s understanding of women’s health, could menstrual blood be key to catching up?

The medical field in general is skewed to look at male biology for many reasons, which has led to a lack of research on menstrual health,” Naseri adds.

“I think could be the tool to accelerate our understanding and could give us an advantage in closing the gender health gap.”