There’s also the potential to leverage the fluid to understand a patient’s environmental exposures, such as to microplastics, air pollution, and forever chemicals. In one study published in 2022 in Science of the Total Environment, Metz and co-authors found that chemical exposures linked to reproductive toxicity and endocrine disruption were present in menstrual blood. Since the substance is flushed out each month, it provided researchers a unique way to study these exposures.
The unique challenges researchers face
Though the new research and products are promising, it doesn’t come without challenges. For one, Bethany Samuelson Bannow, director of classical hematology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, says that it’s hard to study certain aspects of period blood if it’s been sitting in a menstrual cup and therefore not “fresh.” Many are also not comfortable using an insertion product like a menstrual cup.
Another hurdle is that menstrual fluid varies significantly from person to person and even from cycle to cycle, Pan says. “Hormones, age, medications, and underlying health conditions can all influence the composition of the sample, making it harder to identify consistent biomarkers.”
Innovations like “smart” pads that collect the samples and analyze them in real time may help solve some of these problems. Additionally, when the sample sits in a menstrual cup for hours, Samuelson Bannow says, the process of clotting and clot breakdown can continue, leading to an increase in its breakdown. This leaves the substance unusable for research purposes.
Pan believes that in the next five to 10 years, there may be readily available at-home or point-of-care tests leveraging period blood for endometriosis as well as for STIs like HPV. “I anticipate that many direct-to-consumer technologies will emerge, giving women the opportunity to test earlier, gain insights sooner, and ultimately make more informed decisions about their health,” he says.
