The Magic of Period Blood
Period blood has long been treated as something to dispose of quietly - waste, mess, inconvenience. Science, for most of its history, agreed. But look closer, and it's one of the most remarkable biological phenomena in the human body. Every month, the uterine lining sheds and completely regenerates itself, without leaving a single scar. Over and over again, across a lifetime.
Now, researchers are using menstrual fluid for answers to some of medicine's hardest problems - endometriosis, unexplained infertility wound healing, and even Alzheimer's disease.
And of course it's women leading this research. From reversing endometriosis to wound healing - their work is mind-blowing! Read about this later in the article.
Not Just Blood: What Menstrual Fluid Actually Contains (1, 2)
Menstrual fluid is more than just blood. It’s a complex mixture of endometrial cells, immune cells, all sorts of different proteins - and even stem cells!
Menstrual fluid has 186 proteins that are more abundant than normal blood, and 84 of them were unique to menstrual fluid. These proteins help during:
• Cell repair
• Cell migration
• Cell proliferation or growth
• Blood vessel growth
• Inflammation
But what puts the magic in period blood? The overwhelming number of stem cells!
Menstrual Blood-Derived Stem Cells - They’re Supercharged!
Menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs), have a high proliferation rate and the ability to turn into many different types of cells - notably bone, cartilage, heart, fat, pancreatic and even brain cells.
Normally in medicine, stem cells are taken from bone marrow. But menstrual stem cells are actually far superior in many ways:
1. They are supercharged: Menstrual stem cells double their numbers in 18-36 hours, faster than bone marrow stem cells which take 2-8 days! Therefore, they can make 2-4x the stem cells that can be made from bone marrow.
2. Non invasive: Menstrual blood can be collected non-invasively (through a menstrual cup), whereas deriving them from bone marrow involves an extra procedure, which is often painful and expensive.
Period Blood as Disease Treatment (1,2)
Period blood could treat disease - in everybody. Not just women, but men too. Stem cell therapy is the future of regenerative treatment - and menstrual blood is full of them.
1. Tissue repair
Menstrual stem cells can promote tissue regeneration through switching immune cells from inflammatory to - "repair mode”, which is essential in healing. They can help repair skin cells and neurons, and aid collagen synthesis and blood vessel growth, allowing them to be perfect for repair of organs, including skin.
2. Diabetes
Intravenous infusion of menstrual stem cells can activate Beta cell regeneration. These are the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, which are low in diabetes. This is incredibly useful as there are often complications with islet donors for those with diabetes.
3. Spinal cord injury
Normally, brain or spinal cord injury is irreversible due to our inability to regenerate neurons in the central nervous system. However, in rodent models of spinal cord injury, injection of menstrual stem cells into the site of injury improved hindlimb function. Menstrual stem cells can induce neural repair by increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and upregulating key structural proteins to promote the regeneration of axons. Plus, they prevent glial scar formation that usually blocks recovery.
4. Alzheimer’s disease
In mice, menstrual stem cells reduced amyloid plaques that drive Alzheimer’s, suppressed the formation of tau tangles, and enhanced the ability of microglia to be neuroprotective, and clear the buildup that causes Alzheimer’s disease.
5. Ovarian function and reserve
In models of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), transplantation of menstrual stem cells improved ovarian function. They did this through regulation of follicle development, reducing cell death in the ovaries, improving hormone levels and cyclicity. Remarkably, menstrual stem cells are shown to be able to differentiate into egg cells! This proves their potential in treating other ovarian disorders.
6. Infertility
For those whose infertility stems from a dysfunctional uterine lining, menstrual stem cell therapy could be useful in promoting an ideal environment for embryo implantation.
Meet the women researchers turning period blood into breakthroughs
These incredible women are spearheading the research.
Reversing Endometriosis at the Cellular Level - Dr Léa Wenger, Cyclana Bio
Dr Wenger is using donated menstrual fluid to build the first full human tissue model of endometriosis. She’s targeting extracellular matrix interactions to identify new drug targets, with hopes to find a cure for endometriosis!
A Future Supply Chain of Regenerative Medicine - Juliette Humer, Muse Bio
Inspired by her own spinal injury, Juliette Humer is building a commercial platform for affordable menstrual stem cells. It uses a non-invasive collection of menstrual fluid so that your invaluable menstrual stem cells can be banked and used for regenerative medicine research and stem cell therapy.
From Womb to Wound Healing - Dr Jemma Evans, Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Every month, your endometrium lining completely self destructs and repairs and regenerates itself, and Dr Evans harvested that power. She found that plasma from menstrual fluid healed wounds twice as fast as regular blood plasma in lab tests. She's creating a synthetic version to treat chronic wounds caused by diabetes and other conditions.
She Found Stem Cells Where No One Thought to Look - Prof Caroline Gargett, Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Professor Gargett is world-renowned for first discovering stem cells in human endometrium. Now she’s using them to engineer safer surgical implants for pelvic organ prolapse - affecting 1 in 5 women.
The Diagnostic Power of Menstrual Fluid (3,4,5)
1. Endometriosis
Researchers are racing to develop non-invasive tests that can diagnose endometriosis through menstrual fluid. This would be far better to the current need for surgical laparoscopy, which is invasive and has long waiting lists. Several promising biomarkers have already been identified that appear altered in the menstrual fluid of those with endometriosis compared to those without, for example:
• Aromatase: The enzyme that is responsible for local estrogen production is elevated in endometriosis. Specifically, ectopic endometriosis lesions and the endometrial lining contains higher expression of aromatase. Recently, menstrual blood has been shown to have the same pattern, pointing to its potential as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker.
• DNA methylation patterns: Epigenetic signatures in menstrual blood-derived stem cells that identified endometriosis with over 80% accuracy
Other candidate markers include proteins involved in inflammation and tissue remodelling, and genes regulating cell migration, invasion, and angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) - all processes that are dysregulated in endometriosis. None are yet validated in large-scale trials, but the direction is promising.
2. HPV and cervical cancer
A new study in 3000 women found menstrual blood worked as well as cervical smears for testing HPV. Scientists have tested using sanitary pads to collect menstrual blood to screen for HPV, and remarkably it had a 94.7% sensitivity! Larger studies are needed to ensure accuracy, however this could be revolutionary. It would lead to increased accessibility to cervical cancer screening, allows total privacy as it can be done at home, and no speculum is needed - so no discomfort!
3. Diabetes
Diabetes can be diagnosed using menstrual fluid, as HbA1c levels are seen to be indistinguishable in peripheral blood and menstrual blood, making it a less invasive option for monitoring and diagnosis.
References
1. Bozorgmehr, M., Gurung, S., Darzi, S., Nikoo, S., Kazemnejad, S., Zarnani, A. H., & Gargett, C. E. (2020). Endometrial and Menstrual Blood Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells: Biological Properties and Clinical Application. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 8, 497. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2020.00497
2. Feng Y and He Y (2025) The secrets of menstrual blood: emerging frontiers from diagnostic tools to stem cell therapies. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 13:1623959. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1623959
3. Tindal K, Filby CE, Cousins FL, Ellery SJ, Vollenhoven B, Palmer K, et al. The composition of menstrual fluid, its applications, and recent advances to understand the endometrial environment: a narrative review. F&S Reviews [Internet]. 2024 May 1;5(3):100075–5. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266657192400032X
4. Zaheer, A., Komel, A., Abu Bakr, M. B., Singh, A. K., Saji, A. S., Kharal, M. M., Ahsan, A., Khan, M. H., & Akbar, A. (2024). Potential for and challenges of menstrual blood as a non-invasive diagnostic specimen: current status and future directions. Annals of medicine and surgery (2012), 86(8), 4591–4600. https://doi.org/10.1097/MS9.0000000000002261
5. Cordeiro, M.R.; Carvalhos, C.A.; Figueiredo-Dias, M. The Emerging Role of Menstrual-Blood-Derived Stem Cells in Endometriosis. Biomedicines 2023, 11, 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11010039