Can menstrual blood be used as a biomarker?

April 15, 2026

We often think of periods as a simple process where the body gets rid of blood every month. We bleed into our pads or tampons and then discard them after use.

But have you wondered if our menstrual blood could actually help us understand our health better?

When we fall ill we take blood tests, stool tests, or urine tests. But somehow medical practitioners have never really asked for a period blood test. The great news is that this might change soon.

It turns out that what we consider waste is actually a valuable source of information. Menstrual fluid analysis has been found to contain live endometrial and immune cells, proteins, nucleic acids, and even vaginal microbes like Lactobacillus species. Because of this, scientists are now focusing more on menstrual blood research.

Instead of needles or uncomfortable procedures, period blood tests can be a non-invasive way to test women’s health while also gaining useful insights about your body.

There are also biomarkers in menstrual blood that are helpful in diagnosing diseases unrelated to reproductive health. In fact, menstrual blood can bring promising results for diagnosing hormonal imbalances, certain cancers, and other endocrine disorders.

What is a biomarker?

Our body has an incredible ability to send signals when things are going right and when things are going wrong. These signals are called biomarkers. They can be a molecule found in our blood, other body fluids, or tissues. These signals help doctors understand if your body is working the way it should and are also checked during treatment to see if what you're taking or doing is actually helping.

What can menstrual blood act as a biomarker for?

Turns out, our period blood contains multiple markers that can help diagnose many diseases. Menstrual blood can offer a new, non-invasive way to identify uterine health biomarkers.

This means that you could use something as simple as a menstrual cup or a special pad to collect samples for testing.

Let’s take a deep-dive into different health conditions that menstrual blood can potentially diagnose for in the future.

Diabetes

Menstrual blood can help monitor blood sugar levels. Doctors usually track diabetes by measuring Hemoglobin A1C, which shows the average blood sugar level over the past three months.

Studies compared menstrual blood and regular blood samples and found very similar Hemoglobin A1C levels in both.

This means that menstrual blood acts as a biomarker and could be used as another accessible way to monitor diabetes, especially for people of reproductive age.

It could even allow home-based testing in the future, making health monitoring easier.

Read this blog to learn more about managing endometriosis and diabetes.

Endometriosis

It can take up to 7-10 years for a woman to get diagnosed with Endometriosis. At the moment, one of the most common diagnostic procedures is laparoscopy - a surgery that can be uncomfortable and invasive.

A recent study found that the menstrual blood of people with endometriosis has high levels of two proteins (CXCL5 and IL1RN) compared to people who don't have the disease.

On top of that, menstrual blood also contains endometrial tissue making menstrual blood reliable to test for endometriosis.
These endometriosis biomarkers could help detect the disease much earlier and since they're non-invasive diagnostics, they could make getting a diagnosis much more accessible and convenient.

Read this blog to learn more about endometriosis.

Cervical cancer

People often skip their cervical cancer screening tests, like pap-smears, as they tend to be uncomfortable and even painful.

However, new research suggests that period blood tests are an effective HPV detection method.

Some studies found that menstrual blood tests correctly identified a large percentage of people who tested positive through standard Pap smear screening. They were also accurate at ruling out those without the virus.

If further research confirms these findings, menstrual blood testing could make cervical cancer screening more accessible, user-friendly and easier to perform.

On top of that, menstrual blood could also be used for the screening of biomarkers associated with conditions like ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Learn more about cervical cancers in this blog.

Chlamydia

Reproductive health diagnostics include a range of tests to detect infections. In the case of chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted infection, a urine test or vaginal swab are the most common ways to diagnose it.

Studies have shown that period blood collected in pads or cups can effectively detect the infection.

In some cases, the accuracy of this method has been similar to or even better than traditional tests that use vaginal swabs or urine samples.

This approach could provide a more private and convenient way for people to get tested.

Cholesterol and heart health

Lastly, period blood can also be used to estimate cholesterol and lipid levels in our body. Certain markers related to cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides appear in menstrual blood and show a strong correlation with regular blood samples.

This could potentially make it easier to uncover conditions like heart disease, high cholesterol, or metabolic disorders.

Why does this research matter?

The growing interest in menstrual blood diagnostics is opening up new possibilities in what healthcare could look like 10 years from now. In the future, period blood could be used for hormone imbalance testing or even to detect different cancers.

With this breakthrough, doctors could diagnose diseases earlier, monitor chronic conditions, or even enable home-based testing, making it so much more accessible and convenient for people.

Scientists are still in the early days of this research, and it'll be a while before these tests are available everywhere. But from what they are learning, one thing is clear: significant innovation is possible with menstrual blood. In many ways, we are only just beginning to understand its potential.