The application is simple: wear a sanitary towel with the integrated, nonelectronic sensor, take a picture of the used towel with your smartphone and use the app to analyze it. MenstruAI is designed to enable users to check their health regularly and effortlessly. For the first time ever, a new technology from ETH Zurich is bringing a tracking tool to a place where hardly anyone would expect it: the sanitary towel.

Menstrual blood is a source of information

Over 1.8 billion individuals menstruate, yet menstrual blood hardly plays any role in medicine. “This reflects a systemic lack of interest in women’s health,” states Lucas Dosnon, first author and doctoral student in the group of Inge Herrmann, a professor at the University of Zurich, Balgrist University Hospital, Empa and accredited at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich.