There’s good news for anyone who menstruates and doesn’t like the needles involved in blood testing. In January 2024, the biotechnology research company Qvin won FDA approval for their Q-Pad product – a menstrual pad with a removable strip to collect blood samples for clinical tests. It offers a needle-free way of testing menstrual blood for signs of diabetes.
This may only be the beginning of tapping into the huge potential of using menstrual blood in this way. Blood testing, as we know it today, began in the 19th century. But using menstrual blood in diagnosis has a longer history than many people realise.
