How new at-home tests let women gain insights into their reproductive health

Mayra Hurtado knows the struggles of perimenopause first-hand. “My weight fluctuated so much, I had migraines and I literally saw every doctor,” she recalls. It was only after she visited a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic in Singapore that she slowly recovered from her migraines. Inspired by the holistic approach of TCM, the Mexico-born, Singapore-based entrepreneur realised that there are healthcare pathways beyond conventional medicine. “We have that kind of traditional medicine knowledge in Mexico as well, but we have lost [it] with generations.” Now, the CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based femtech start-up Hormony aims to have holistic and conventional medicine intersect with an at-home rapid hormone testing kit for women in perimenopause – the transitional stage that precedes menopause that can last for a decade. Hormony’s salivary test measures a person’s level of cortisol, the “stress hormone” that follows a daily rhythm and can shift with sleep, stress and lifestyle. Levels fluctuate greatly during the menopausal transition due to declining oestrogen and progesterone levels. This may intensify perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms, exacerbating issues like insomnia, weight gain, mood swings and hot flushes. A Hormony kit costs HK$600 (US$77) and includes three cortisol test strips, saliva aids and buffer vials to test three times a day – once upon waking, again 30 minutes afterwards and once more just before bedtime. Since cortisol follows a 24-hour biological cycle, it can be difficult to interpret the data if testing is not done at specific times. Hurtado says this kit, which is designed to help users observe patterns for educational and self-awareness purposes, can provide results in minutes rather than days, and allows individuals to measure their cortisol rhythm at the appropriate times without needing to visit a laboratory or mail samples for analysis. “It’s like a Covid test,” she says. “The test, similarly, gives you a colour imagery.” The intensity of the colour in the test line corresponds to hormone concentration. The user then scans the test into the Hormony Insights mobile app, which Hurtado developed alongside business partner Sarita Kumble, a biotech professional. The app uses an AI-powered algorithm to provide data on cortisol levels and offers insights and general wellness tips for energy, sleep and mood, such as when to drink more water or when you might expect to feel tired. The kit and app are “consumer grade”, not medical; the product was designed for tracking patterns, not for diagnosing conditions. Users are advised to begin with a single, three-test day to establish a personal baseline. To gain a deeper understanding of their hormonal rhythm, they may repeat this three-test cycle once a week for three months while documenting symptoms and menstrual changes. The data can be shared with a doctor for more productive consultations about reproductive health. Data sharing offers insights to clinicians Health data from such consumer products should be discussed with healthcare professionals, agrees Dr Laurena Law, a founding member of the new non-profit The Hong Kong Menopause Society. In her own practice, Law finds it helpful to look at data from patients’ wearable devices that track sleep and exercise. While she notes that viewing data from such consumer-grade products is not her primary method of assessing patients, she believes it helps to provide a holistic framework for a consultation. “We can’t ignore technology,” she says regarding the influx of femtech products hitting the market, noting that she keeps an open mind about their utility. Her clinical approach prioritises understanding a patient’s lifestyle and health history before moving towards comprehensive hormone testing. However, Law cautions that these products can be a double-edged sword; she has observed cases in which patients become anxious about their health data, leading them to self-treat with supplements that she must then “de-prescribe”. Ultimately, she sees the most value in these tools when the resulting data is used to foster more productive, shared conversations between patients and their doctors. Like mother, like daughter Hurtado sees the value in using tests such as Hormony not just for this generation of women. “Imagine this: if I have a daughter and she has all my health data as well as her own data set, this could allow her to make better decisions and maybe live a healthier life.” This is because many hormonal transitions are hereditary. The age at which a mother enters perimenopause or menopause is one of the strongest predictors of when her daughter will. If a mother’s data shows a dip in fertility markers or a rise in perimenopausal symptoms at age 42, the daughter can use this to provide a baseline for discussion with her own doctors. Though Hormony is currently only available at Hong Kong’s Mannings chemist chain, there are plans to expand to Singapore and other international markets. “I believe these technologies are going to be as common as doing a pregnancy test. There’s a huge opportunity to understand our biology better,” Hurtado says of her hopes for the future of femtech. Gaining insight from menstrual blood The convenience and privacy of an at-home testing kit is something German start-up Theblood is also focusing on. Its CEO, Isabelle Guenou, was a professional swimmer who struggled with severe period pain for years before she was diagnosed with endometriosis, a chronic disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. She wondered whether the secrets to women’s health could be housed in the biomarkers in menstrual blood, such as hormones and vitamins. She learned they can provide insight into inflammatory-related disorders such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and other fertility-related conditions. Theblood plans to offer an at-home kit for collecting a menstrual blood sample that can be sent for analysis at a partnered lab. The resulting data will be available through a companion app, helping to track symptoms, mood and cycle patterns. The test focuses on analysing five or six of more than 300 biomarkers found in menstrual blood that assess fertility and hormonal balance. Guenou gives the example of the anti-Müllerian hormone; low levels can signal that a woman’s egg reserve is falling, suggesting she is less fertile or may be entering menopause. It cannot, however, assess egg quality nor predict the time of menopause onset. Theblood is still undergoing approval processes; Guenou expects it to launch in late 2026 as a medically approved product, first in Europe. “What I envision is maybe 10 to 20 years down the line that menstrual blood diagnostics is as standard as urine or stool tests … this is how we want to democratise [women’s healthcare],” says Marilena Yo Schmich, interim COO of Theblood. Closing the gender data gap Menstrual blood samples are historically absent from major biobanks, which are large reserves of human biological samples for research purposes. This exclusion has created a “blind spot” in clinical research, stalling the development of non-invasive diagnostics for conditions like endometriosis and PCOS. Data security concerns loom over the femtech world, especially given the US$56 million class action lawsuit against Google and Flo Health, an AI-powered period tracking app, in 2025. The case centred on allegations that Flo Health betrayed users’ trust by sharing intimate reproductive data with third parties for targeted advertising purposes. “We’re currently working on … an infrastructure where the woman can decide whether they want to share their data for research or not, and to be compensated for it,” Schmich says. Guenou and Schmich both note the challenge of convincing investors to fund start-ups that focus on women’s health, who cite concerns about a small market if their product only serves “half of the population”. Hormony had the support of Femtech Future, a consultancy based in Asia, to bring Hurtado’s dream to life. It helps to find ways to commercialise products, and facilitate finding opportunities – whether in funding or collaboration with other start-ups, she says. The future of women’s health is finally being shaped by women’s hands as we move from a “silent” generation – where mothers did not talk about their periods – to a generation that uses data to break the cycle of delayed diagnosis. Just a few years ago, menopause, much less perimenopause, was not part of the mainstream health conversation at all, Hurtado says. When she was young, she felt mortified buying sanitary towels. “But now, there are a lot more women in positions where they’re making decisions and solving the problem, and the new generations are a lot more open and interested in the conversation,” she says. Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

How new at-home tests let women gain insights into their reproductive health

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A Singapore-based start-up offers a hormone testing kit for perimenopausal women, while a German one gives insights based on menstrual blood

A Singapore-based start-up offers a hormone testing kit for perimenopausal women, while a German one gives insights based on menstrual blood