Joshua Rothman
Ideas editor 
“Holy mackerel, look at this treasure chest I opened up,” a researcher recalls thinking, in Rachel E. Gross’s fascinating new piece about the diagnostic promise of menstrual blood. Each year, millions of women suffer from reproductive diseases that are impossible to definitively diagnose without surgery; they endure not just illness but uncertainty. Now, Gross writes, a new wave of startups hopes to change that by analyzing menstrual blood. It contains “hundreds of unique proteins” that can’t be found in an ordinary blood test. Until very recently, period blood was profoundly overlooked as a subject of study. So Gross’s piece actually tracks two kinds of progress. On a scientific level, researchers are understanding more and more about the reproductive system; on a social level, they’re breaking a taboo. How do you get from a tampon or pad to a reliable diagnosis? You need to analyze proteins—and you need to uncover the value in something that’s usually thrown away. | 
.png)
