Image courtesy of Courtesy of Leah Morgan
As a medical student in her home country of Denmark, Sara Naseri quickly realized that time—in particular, early detection—is the most important prognostic factor for any condition. Aiming to be proactive rather than reactive about patient health, she sought a more convenient way to obtain patients’ blood, which is important for its wide-ranging use in diagnostics. “How do we get access to blood regularly and noninvasively? One day it hit me…Half of the world bleeds every month. Why has nobody used this?” Naseri said. From there, she began a long journey in which she has proven and embraced the diagnostic power of menstrual blood, ultimately creating a product to collect this blood and a brand committed to destigmatizing periods and empowering women.
At the time of her initial “lightbulb moment,” there was little understanding of what menstrual blood is and how it might be used to obtain relevant health information. Menstruation has often been viewed as dirty and shameful—a stigma that likely explains why the diagnostic power of period blood has been largely overlooked until now. Despite initial challenges in finding a lab willing to work with menstrual blood, Naseri was ultimately able to answer basic questions about its diagnostic utility during her time as a visiting scholar at Stanford. She first needed to demonstrate that this blood is suitable for testing, before narrowing down precisely what insights it can provide. From there, she shifted her focus to creating a device to collect this diagnostically useful menstrual blood and tested many iterations to create a marketable product. Each step of this journey, Naseri emphasizes, was made possible through collaboration. “Initially you have to have the courage to jump in, but there’s a moment in time where it becomes crucial to have an ability to know your limitations and collaborate,” she said.
The product that emerged from these years of research and collaboration is known as the “Q-Pad” and is sold by Qvin, a company co-founded by Naseri. Qvin’s Q-Pad is similar to a regular sanitary pad in the way it collects menstrual blood, but it contains a collection strip which is removed and placed into a pre-stamped container to be shipped off for lab analysis. Naseri sees the product as a way for women to monitor their health on their own terms, as well as a means to address the concerning gaps in knowledge about women’s health. “This is a really accessible way to close the gender-data gap that unfortunately exists in women’s health research,” Naseri said. Once Q-Pad users receive the results of their blood testing, it is easy for them to share these results with clinicians and participate in research, should they choose to do so.
The process of gaining approval from regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been a learning process for Naseri, who admits that her medical education did not prepare her for the product development side of medicine, especially amid ever-changing guidelines. Currently, Qvin’s Q-Pad is FDA-cleared to measure hemoglobin A1c, an indicator of blood sugar level which is monitored to assess diabetes risk. However, research has also suggested that menstrual blood is an effective and noninvasive way to measure thyroid-stimulating hormone, which affects metabolism and numerous hormones related to fertility.
Especially exciting is the Q-Pad’s utility in screening for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). Research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology demonstrated that among HPV-positive women, the Q-Pad provided results that were highly consistent with clinician-collected sampling. The majority of patients in the study also recommended the Q-Pad over clinician-collected sampling, likely due to discomfort associated with a traditional speculum exam and Pap smear. Given HPV’s central role in causing cervical cancer, it is inspiring to imagine a future where the use of a specialized menstrual pad may become a noninvasive supplement to cervical cancer screening and prevention programs. “I think we are only scratching the surface as far as what’s possible and the value it could create for women’s health,” Naseri said.
In October of 2024, Qvin’s Q-Pad was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2024, indicating that menstrual blood may finally be getting recognition for the power it holds. Given its newly realized power to monitor health and facilitate early detection of disease, Naseri’s optimism for the future of menstrual blood is both justified and highly encouraging, especially when considering the damaging stigma historically associated with periods.