Validation Study of a Photo-Based Menstrual Blood Loss Metric

Area of Science:

• Gynecology and Reproductive Health
• Medical Imaging and Diagnostics
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) affects millions of women globally.
• Current diagnostic methods, like the alkaline hematin method, are invasive and cumbersome.
• There is a need for accessible, objective tools to quantify menstrual blood loss.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate an objective, photo-based electronic method for quantifying menstrual blood loss.
• To compare the accuracy of this novel method against the gold standard alkaline hematin method.
• To assess the utility of the photo-based method in diagnosing HMB.

Main Methods:

• A multicenter, prospective cohort study involving 79 premenopausal women with self-reported HMB.
• Participants used smartphone-captured images of menstrual pads for analysis.
• A photo-based smartphone application quantified blood loss volume, compared to the alkaline hematin method.

Main Results:

• The photo-based method showed strong correlation with the alkaline hematin standard (R²=0.75 per pad, R²=0.83 per cycle).
• High agreement with minimal bias was observed.
• The method demonstrated 100% sensitivity and 93.5% specificity for diagnosing HMB (≥80 mL/cycle).

Conclusions:

• The photo-based method is a valid, practical, and accessible alternative for quantifying menstrual blood loss.
• It enables accurate diagnosis and monitoring of HMB in clinical and research settings.
• This technology can improve HMB management and patient outcomes.