Menstrual Blood: Emerging Therapeutic and Diagnostic Frontier

Recent work shows menstrual fluid can speed wound repair, enable cervical cancer screening, detect endometriosis, and supply stem cells; a 2018 wound-healing trial, a 2025 diagnostic evaluation, and a 2023 stem-cell analysis illustrate these uses.

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Taboos have limited menstrual research, while myths—e.g., Pliny the Elder’s claim that a menstruating woman could repel storms—contrast with laboratory studies.

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Dr Jemma Evans (Hudson Institute) led the wound-healing study; Prof Dipanjan Pan (Penn State) developed the endometriosis test strip.

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• 2018 wound-healing trial: menstrual-fluid plasma achieved 100 % closure in 24 h versus ~40 % with blood plasma; MenSCs show pluripotency, low immunogenicity and efficacy for infertility, ovarian insufficiency, intrauterine adhesions, liver disease, skin injury, neuroinflammation.

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• 2025: menstrual-blood testing reached 97.7 % sensitivity for HPV, catching missed Pap smears.

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• Endometriosis strip: 500 % greater sensitivity than lab methods; the Cleveland Clinic reports the condition affects 1 in 10 women worldwide.

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Researchers cite uterus’s scar-free repair as a model, and Dr Jemma Evans highlighted applying endometrial repair to skin. The 2025 study called menstrual blood a sample that outperforms Pap smears; investigators noted MenSCs’ low immunogenicity.

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• “Few tissues in the human body promote scar-free wound healing in the same way as the womb. We wanted to test if we could apply these amazing endometrial repair properties to a tissue that is difficult to repair – the skin,” — Dr Jemma Evans, Hudson Institute of Medical Research

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• “In wounds made in human skin cells, plasma derived from menstrual fluid brought about complete repair, or 100 per cent healing in 24 hours, compared with about 40 per cent healing observed when using human blood plasma to mimic normal wound healing,” — Dr Jemma Evans

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• “Compared with conventional cervical smears, MB-based testing achieved 97.7% sensitivity, identifying additional HPV genotypes, multiple infections, and true-negative cases,” — 2025 study authors

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• “Therapeutically, stem cells derived from MB (menstrual blood-derived stem cells, MenSCs) exhibit pluripotency, high proliferative capacity, and low immunogenicity, positioning them as promising candidates in regenerative medicine,” — 2023 study authors

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Rapid wound closure suggests treatments for surgery. HPV screening could reduce reliance on Pap smears. An at-home endometriosis strip may speed diagnosis for a condition affecting 10 % of women. MenSCs could treat reproductive, liver, skin, and neurodegenerative diseases, pending validation.

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Large-scale human trials of menstrual-blood therapies have not yet been published, and comparative long-term outcome data remain limited, indicating a need for standardized protocols and regulatory review.

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The team plans to broaden the at-home test to include HPV detection and to advance MenSC trials for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, with clinical studies expected within two years pending approval.

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