A paper published in 2007 reported finding stem cells in menstrual blood. In the almost two decades since, others have shown that those stem cells can be used therapeutically for a host of disease processes. Menstrual effluent also contains vitamins and minerals, and other important and testable components of human health. These discoveries are both mind-blowingly cool and shockingly obvious – or they should have been if we had ever bothered to consider what menstrual blood represents.
Menstrual effluent is quite literally the lining of tissue meant to grow a human that is sluffed off when pregnancy does not occur. Of course, it would have stem cells. Of course, it would contain vitamins and minerals, and of course, it would contain immune factors other components requisite for embryogenesis. Of course.
We never considered this though. Instead we bought into the long-held and largely misogynist beliefs perpetrated by western medicine – that menstrual blood was a dirty waste product, that women were smaller, more hysterical, and basically inferior men, and that reproductive health was somehow entirely separate from ‘real’ health. None of this is true, of course, but these notions are so pervasive and so thoroughly internalized, by men and women alike, that research we could have been doing decades ago, research that is likely to save lives and improve health, was never considered.
Heck, the body of research on fecal matter, an actual waste product, is enormous and growing. All the while, a bodily fluid that evolves from an organ to grow another human is paltry by comparison. Indeed, women’s health research in general is notoriously underrepresented in academic and medical circles. It always has been, and likely always will be, to the detriment of the 50% of the population responsible for ensuring the survival of the species.
All of that said, and my rant about the inequities of medical practice and research aside, the discovery, nay, recognition of stem cells and other diagnostically useful components in menstrual blood is a HUGE win for women’s health. What we do with that discovery, however, is still up for grabs. There are a few women led companies and research teams working to capitalize these findings some of these findings, but the work is yet very limited.
Where I think this research offers the greatest prospect for improving women’s health is in diagnosing, understanding, and then treating the litany of period-related and reproductive disorders that plague modern women. This includes: endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibroids, menorrhagia (heavy bleeding), PCOS, and of course, infertility. Menstrual blood could be window into each of these disease processes, especially when we consider nutrient composition and metabolism relative to stem cell proliferation.
If I were in this field, I would evaluate interactions between mitochondrial metabolism and the fate of menstrual stem cells. Recall my article from a few months back documenting research that showed how, into what, and where stem cells evolved was related to mitochondrial metabolism. Specifically, researchers have demonstrated that when the metabolic factors are favorable, meaning that adequate mitochondrial nutrients are available, stem cells develop predictably, but when metabolic factors are inadequate, stem cells travel in search of nutrients and develop anomalously.
The cell tests whether it has the materials in its environment. If it cannot execute the metabolism, then it won’t become that cell type, in spite of signals to differentiate.
This suggests that mitochondrial metabolism, not necessarily genetics or even epigenetics determines the fate of a stem cell. This makes sense when one considers that the mitochondria must produce the energy/ATP required for stem cell development along with the cofactors and substrates required for epigenetic modifications. So, while the genetic blueprint of the cell tells it to look and behave a certain way, and epigenetics may fine tune those commands, the mitochondria are the final arbiters of design and activity.
In this context, consider a disease process like endometriosis where cells travel and seed in unexpected regions. Sure there are genetic and epigenetic components, but might these ultimately be guided by impaired mitochondrial metabolism? If we were to look more closely at the menstrual effluent of women with endometriosis, assess stem cell progression, measure mitochondrial metabolism, regional nutrient capacity, and even evaluate regional toxicant exposures, I would venture that we could develop not only a more diagnostically useful model of the disease process, but also, treatment protocols that might actual curb or reverse the aberrant cell growth.
If we could do this for each of the so-called ‘reproductive’ or ‘menstrual’ disorders like adenomyosis, PCOS, fibroids, and menorrhagia, I bet we would find distinct patterns of reduced mitochondrial metabolism and poor nutrient capacity interacting with stem cell development. Some of those patterns might be correctable, or at least modifiable, and thus, would reduce the suffering of millions of women.
Alas, however, this would require an interest in, and funding for, women’s health research. And we all know where that stands.
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