Period 2.0: Scientists Create Menstrual Pads and Cups That Solidify Blood

The aboriginal of menstruation whitethorn look a spot antithetic than today, if a squad of scientists successful Virginia person thing to accidental astir it. They’ve created pads and cups that tin solidify menstrual humor alternatively than simply sorb oregon incorporate it arsenic is. Their innovation should trim leaking and spillage, portion besides being environmentally friendly, the squad says.

Researchers astatine the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University developed the next-gen menstrual technology. This squad chiefly studies the gut microbiome and bacteriophages (bacteria-preying viruses), but besides person a related involvement successful biomaterials—substances that tin safely interact with our bodies, either to support, replace, oregon adjacent heighten a biologic function. Lab person Bryan Hsu wanted his adjacent task to absorption connected thing that had gotten comparatively small attraction elsewhere, and that’s erstwhile helium landed connected menstruation.

“Menstrual attraction products person been based connected the aforesaid principles for a truly agelong time: either retention oregon absorption,” Hsu told Gizmodo successful an email. “With truthful overmuch biotechnological advancement successful different areas of health, I was amazed to larn that determination was comparatively small advancement successful menstrual care.”

While these existing methods mightiness beryllium good astir of the time, a woman’s dense travel tin overwhelm a pad oregon cup, starring to leaking. Hsu figured that it would beryllium imaginable to counteract this by making the humor itself harder to spill.

“When formulating the thought successful my naïve antheral mind, I imagined myself getting a afloat cupful of h2o successful the mediate of the night. I cognize that I would 100% spill the h2o connected the mode backmost to bed. But I’m besides beauteous definite I wouldn’t spill a afloat cupful of soil (solid), chromatic (highly viscous), oregon jello (a gel).” helium explained. “So we tried to plan a merchandise that would gel humor truthful that it would beryllium easier to negociate without spilling.”

© Bataglioli et al/Matter

The team—which does see respective women—ultimately settled connected utilizing a pulverization substance of alginate, a polymer derived from seaweed, and glycerol (a people occurring alcohol) to bash the trick. In experiments simulating menstruation with existent blood, the summation of the pulverization prevented much leakage from a pad and overmuch much spillage from a cupful compared to their emblematic counterparts. These ingredients are besides biodegradable and already wide added to different products, including food. And if the team’s exertion tin marque reusable cups much appealing, it could assistance chopped down the sizable magnitude of discarded produced by disposable tampons and pads. The team’s findings were published Wednesday successful the diary Matter.

This isn’t the archetypal clip that radical person tried to reinvent the menstruation wheel—an endeavor that hasn’t ever gone smoothly. The accomplishment of superabsorbent tampons successful the aboriginal 1980s inadvertently sparked outbreaks of toxic daze syndrome, a life-threatening information caused by the overgrowth of definite toxin-producing strains of bacteria, peculiarly Staphylococcus aureus. Thankfully, the speedy callback of these products and amended proposal connected tampon usage yet quelled the terror of toxic shock.

Menstrual-related toxic daze remains precise uncommon contiguous and is inactive predominantly associated with tampons, but cases tin hap successful those utilizing cups and pads arsenic well. Since alginate tin besides beryllium nutrient for immoderate bacteria, Hsu’s squad wanted to get up of things and proactively little the hazard of toxic shock, but without perchance harming the earthy vaginal microbiome. 

“We added a cationic polysaccharide to our formulation that would entangle itself into our worldly and minimize leaching distant from the material,” Hsu said. “We recovered that it didn’t impair the gelling relation erstwhile mixed with blood, but besides reduced the maturation of S. aureus successful the material.”

Despite the team’s innovative attack to solidify menstrual blood, their merchandise is inactive a agelong mode from being disposable connected the shelves of your section pharmacy. The squad volition person to intelligibly amusement that its instauration tin conscionable the regulatory standards of different FDA-approved menstrual products, including safety. They’ll besides person to marque definite that it tin beryllium scaled up portion inactive remaining affordable. But the squad is decidedly hoping to make their tech commercially, and they’re already looking up to different iterations of it.

“We’re besides moving connected a tampon benignant of formulation and are aiming for different applications successful women’s wellness that we deliberation tin person a precocious interaction connected prime of life,” Hsu said.