Color modifications on the sanitary towel might be interpreted by eye or photographed with a smartphone and evaluated immediately within the app. The prototype has a dot with a management dot on the check strip for every biomarker. Credit score: AI generated: Lucas Dosnon and Josef Kuster / ETH Zurich
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed the primary expertise that is ready to acknowledge biomarkers in menstrual blood—immediately in sanitary towels. MenstruAI guarantees a easy, non-invasive methodology for recording well being information in on a regular basis life.
The examine is printed within the journal Superior Science.
The applying is easy: put on a sanitary towel with the built-in, nonelectronic sensor, take an image of the used towel together with your smartphone and use the app to investigate it. MenstruAI is designed to allow customers to examine their well being usually and effortlessly. For the primary time ever, a brand new expertise from ETH Zurich is bringing a monitoring software to a spot the place hardly anybody would anticipate it: the sanitary towel.
Menstrual blood is a supply of knowledge
Over 1.8 billion people menstruate, but menstrual blood hardly performs any position in drugs. “This reflects a systemic lack of interest in women’s health,” states Lucas Dosnon, first writer and doctoral scholar within the group of Inge Herrmann, a professor on the College of Zurich, Balgrist College Hospital, Empa and accredited on the Division of Mechanical and Course of Engineering at ETH Zurich.
“To date, menstrual blood has been regarded as waste. We are showing that it is a valuable source of information,” says Dosnon.
Menstrual blood comprises lots of of proteins, and for a lot of of them there’s a correlation with their focus in venous blood. Quite a few illnesses, together with tumors reminiscent of ovarian most cancers or endometriosis, result in the presence of sure proteins in blood, which may function biomarkers for illness detection.
The ETH researchers used three biomarkers as a place to begin for MenstruAI. They presently file the C-reactive protein (CRP) as a basic irritation marker, the tumor marker CEA usually elevated in all types of cancers, and CA-125, a protein that may be elevated in endometriosis in addition to in ovarian most cancers.
Many extra protein-based biomarkers are presently being investigated and might be added to the checklist to replicate many different elements of a person’s well being.
The identical performance as a COVID check
MenstruAI makes use of a paper-based fast check strip, a precept that can be acquainted from COVID self-tests—nevertheless, this time analyzing blood as a substitute of saliva.
When the biomarker within the menstrual blood comes into contact with a particular antibody on the check strip, a coloured indicator seems. This varies in coloration depth relying on the focus of the corresponding protein.
Idea of menstruation blood biosensor built-in into hygiene pads enabling direct naked-eye readable semi-quantitative evaluation of biomarkers in unprocessed menstruation blood. The platform termed MenstruAI is designed to incorporate an infection/irritation, most cancers and endometriosis biomarkers primarily based on an in-pad built-in lateral circulate assay (LFA) platform with built-in quantity management. Credit score: Superior Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202505170
The upper the focus, the darker the colour might be. The check space is embedded in a novel small versatile silicone chamber, which might be mixed with a commercially accessible sanitary towel. Because of its progressive nature, solely a managed quantity of blood reaches the sensor—with out smearing or falsifying the check.
The outcomes might be learn with the bare eye or with a specifically developed app primarily based on machine studying that evaluates the colour depth. “The app also recognizes subtle differences, such as the amount of proteins present, and makes the result objectively measurable,” explains Dosnon.
Does it truly work in on a regular basis life?
One other focus is on the organic variety of menstrual blood: the composition varies relying on the day of the cycle in addition to between people. This heterogeneity should be recorded and analyzed—a pivotal step for scientific validation. Furthermore, regulatory necessities should even be checked with a view to attainable market authorization, for instance, biocompatibility should be assessed. The supplies concerned, nevertheless, are thought-about secure.
On the similar time, the workforce is working with design specialists from the Zurich College of the Arts (ZHdK). The intention is to additional optimize the consumer expertise, thereby preserving the psychological barrier as little as attainable. “It’s also about designing the technology in such a way that makes it technically and socially acceptable,” says Herrmann.
Cheap, however no substitute for medical recommendation
The expertise built-in throughout the pad works with out laboratory gear. “Right from the outset, the aim was to develop a solution that can also be used in regions with poor health care provision and would be as cost-effective as possible, potentially enabling population-based screening,” says Herrmann.
Consequently, MenstruAI can function an early warning system—customers can search medical recommendation within the occasion of irregular values. It isn’t supposed to exchange established diagnostics, however to offer data on when a go to to the physician is likely to be expedient. As well as, well being development might be monitored over the long run and any modifications might be higher understood.
Herrmann and Dosnon regard MenstruAI as greater than only a technical venture. It’s a contribution to extra equitable well being care.
“When we talk about health care, we can’t simply phase out half of humanity,” Herrmann underlines. The researchers had been amazed on the extent to which the subject of menstruation continues to be stigmatized, together with in educational circles, and that many declared their concept to be nauseous or impractical.
Dosnon is satisfied, nevertheless: “Courageous projects are called for to break down existing patterns of behavior to ensure that women’s health finally takes the place it deserves.”
Extra data:
Lucas Dosnon et al, A Wearable In‐Pad Diagnostic for the Detection of Illness Biomarkers in Menstruation Blood, Superior Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202505170
Quotation:
Good sanitary pads use fast check strips and AI app to disclose key well being biomarkers (2025, Might 27)
retrieved 27 Might 2025
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