Photo: Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition/Unsplash
Menstrual blood might just hold the key to making health diagnostics more accessible, less invasive, and more inclusive. Dr. Sara Naseri began to wonder why menstrual blood was not used as a diagnostic tool given that half the world’s population bleeds every single month. Her now FDA-approved Q-Pad A1c Test collects a small sample of menstrual blood, which is then analyzed for indicators that shed light on various health conditions. “You just wear a menstrual pad like you normally would,” Naseri says. “The rest happens without you even noticing.” Sânziana Foia’s Papcup offers an at-home method for detecting HPV. In the US, the ROSE study is investigating menstrual effluent to better diagnose and treat endometriosis and infertility and in Austria, Diamens has identified biomarkers in menstrual blood to develop an at-home test for diagnosing endometriosis.
|
|
More:
