2026 · Annals of medicine and surgery · open access
Beyond waste: menstrual blood as a powerful diagnostic tool for women's health
Shafiq et al.
The finding, in our words
Menstrual blood offers a noninvasive, patient-centric matrix for detecting endometriosis, cervical cancer, and hormonal disorders through self-collected samples. Wearable in-pad biosensors enabling real-time monitoring and long-term tracking could transform fertility evaluation and early disease detection, though standardisation and large-scale validation remain critical gaps.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A US survey of 3,400 adults aged 62 to 90 collected up to 15 biomeasures at home, including saliva, dried blood spots and urine, with Salivette and Oragene among the devices used, which shows that several patient-centric sampling methods can run together in home-based research.
Jaszczak et al., The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (paywalled) · source ↗
Self-collected salivary progesterone and the ratio of estradiol to progesterone showed strong agreement with serum levels, supporting the use of saliva as a noninvasive matrix for monitoring the menstrual cycle.
Goldenstein et al., Physiological reports · source ↗
In a 20-person proof-of-concept pilot among veterans with HIV, remote self-collection of dried blood spots for phosphatidylethanol monitoring was feasible and acceptable, with high return and analysis rates and positive feedback; a small first step toward decentralised alcohol biomarker monitoring rather than proof of it.
Sheinfil et al., Journal of substance use and addiction treatment (paywalled) · source ↗
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
In a large study using self-collected capillary blood, current vaping and smoking were independently associated with lower levels of anti-Müllerian hormone, a marker of ovarian reserve. This demonstrates the utility of decentralised capillary sampling for large-scale epidemiological research on reproductive health.
Getreu et al., BMC women's health (paywalled) · source ↗