A woman’s experience is full of contradictions. She can be praised, but not promoted; perform the same job, but not be paid equally; considered honest, but not believed; and celebrated for becoming a woman, but shamed for talking about her period. Periods are experienced by more than 2 billion people, yet they remain an awkwardly whispered-about part of women’s health. We’ve created code names like “Aunt Flo” and “that time of the month.” We hide tampons up our sleeves and we treat a normal biological process like a secret mission.

That stigma has, forgive the pun, bled into medicine. For much of history, menstruation was treated as impure, dangerous, or disgusting. Pliny the Elder famously claimed that just being near menstrual blood could sour wine, ruin crops, and make bees abandon their hives. In the 1920s, Dr. Béla Schick promoted the idea of “menotoxin,” a supposed substance released by menstruating women that could wilt flowers, stop dough from rising, and even harm children. The theory of menotoxins lingered in scientific literature for decades…mentioned in science journals until the 70s.

So yes, the bar was low and that bias carried into modern medicine. For years, menstrual blood was dismissed as waste rather than studied as a potentially powerful diagnostic tool. In the past 30 years, only about 400 PubMed articles have mentioned menstrual blood, compared with more than 15,000 mentioning semen. Dr. Sara Naseri, co-founder and CEO of Qvin, which created the first FDA-cleared diagnostic menstrual pad, said a male colleague once called her research “disgusting.” The samples he was working with? Feces.

Menstrual blood is not just blood. It contains uterine lining, unique proteins, stem cells, immune cells, and more. As Christine Metz, a professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, put it, “It is an obvious biological specimen that has been totally neglected. It is considered waste, but in fact, it’s a real treasure.” That treasure could change women’s healthcare.

Researchers have found that menstrual blood can contain biomarkers for conditions including fibroids, cervical cancer, HPV, sexually transmitted infections, adenomyosis, and endometriosis. Endometriosis affects roughly 1 in 10 women globally, can cause severe pain, heavy bleeding, infertility, and organ damage, and often takes 7 to 10 years to diagnose. Today, surgery is still the only way to confirm it. Menstrual blood testing could enable earlier, faster, and less invasive diagnosis.

And the potential goes beyond diagnosis. The uterine lining rebuilds and sheds hundreds of times (400 times in an average woman's life!) without scarring, making it one of the body’s most remarkable examples of regeneration. Scientists are studying menstrual stem cells and menstrual fluid plasma for their healing properties, including faster wound repair in lab models. They discovered that menstrual blood’s stem cells are similar to those found in bone marrow, but are easier to collect and may be even more effective. In fact, menstrual blood can contain 2-4x more stem cells than an equivalent amount of bone marrow, making it a promising tool for future treatments and therapies.

The results are already turning heads. In laboratory studies, plasma derived from menstrual fluid helped wounds heal significantly faster than traditional blood plasma. In some cases, skin cells achieved complete wound closure within 24 hours. What was once dismissed as waste may actually hold clues to some of medicine's most exciting breakthroughs. That's why Dr. Naseri calls period blood "the most overlooked opportunity in medical research." Women make up nearly half of the global population, yet only 5% of all research and healthcare development is devoted to issues that affect them. The issue isn't a lack of potential, it's a lack of attention.

For centuries, society treated periods as something to hide. Medicine largely treated them as something to ignore. Now we're discovering that within something long dismissed as inconvenient, embarrassing, or even dirty, lies a wealth of information about the human body. Periods are so much more than the end of a cycle. They may be the beginning of a new era in women's health.

Lucy Goff is the founder of LYMA, a pioneering MedTech company transforming skin, sleep, and stress through breakthrough scientific innovation. After the birth of her daughter, she faced a life-threatening battle with septicemia, a serious bacterial infection in the bloodstream. The experience led her to partner with longevity expert Professor Paul Clayton to develop the LYMA Supplement, the first formula of its kind using only patented, peer-reviewed ingredients at clinically proven doses. She went on to launch the LYMA Laser and LYMA Laser PRO, the first FDA-cleared, at-home clinical-grade lasers.

Lucy has led LYMA to international recognition, including the King’s Award for Enterprise following its U.S. expansion. She has been named a Forbes 50 Over 50 global trailblazer, Wired Magazine Trailblazer, and Woman of the Year at the everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, all while raising her daughter as a single mother.

This Labor Day, receive a gift worth up to $794 with every LYMA purchase. Check it out here!

What’s the worst career advice you’ve gotten?

When we were seeking initial investment for the launch of the LYMA Supplement, our first product, I heard over and over again, “No one's going to pay premium prices for a supplement, however good the science is.” I remortgaged my home and launched it from my own kitchen table instead. I trusted the evidence over the doubters. It wasn't a calculated risk; it was conviction, belief in what I'd built, and it paid off. It was a very different story after we launched when every firm that had said no came back wanting in.

What’s the best piece of non-obvious career advice you’ve gotten?

Never compromise. When I founded LYMA, the rule was simple: we need scientific proof that it works. The Supplement exists because we insisted on eleven patented, peer-reviewed ingredients dosed at the real clinical level. The Laser took 18 months to get FDA-cleared, the first clinic-grade cold laser cleared for home use in the U.S., because we wouldn't cut corners to get there faster. ID², our gut health formula which launched this year, feeds all four sections of the gut instead of one because that's what the science called for. LYMA Skincare works across all five mechanisms of skin aging, where most products stop at one or two. Water any of that down to save money or time, and you've lost the thing that made it worth building. Trends come and go, but credibility doesn't.

What was a heartbeat moment for you in your career?

After my daughter was born, I developed septicemia and spent six weeks in intensive care. When I finally came home, I was told I was medically well even though I'd never felt worse. Nothing I tried helped until I met Professor Paul Clayton, a world authority on preventative health. He gave me a protocol of patented, peer-reviewed ingredients at real clinical doses, and within weeks I felt like myself again for the first time in months. That was my heartbeat moment, and it’s the reason LYMA exists. I couldn't shake the thought that I'd only recovered because I happened to meet the right person at the right time, and that felt deeply unfair. That protocol became the LYMA Supplement, and everything we've built since, the Laser, ID², LYMA Skincare, traces back to that one realization: if it worked for me, it could work for so many other women, too.

Who is one person you’d love to give flowers to from your career that influenced your journey? What advice or lesson did you learn from them?

My sister Emily. She has epilepsy, and she's built an entire life around never knowing whether that day is going to include a seizure, including starting her own business and raising serious money for charity along the way. She's said to me more than once: "I get up every day and don't know whether I'm going to have a seizure, but you can't expect to achieve anything in life if you don't go out and fight for it." It's the closest thing I have to a personal definition of courage, and it's shaped how I've built LYMA.

Where have you caused some good trouble in your career?

Every time we've launched something that didn't fit into an existing regulatory box. When we brought the LYMA Laser to market, the first clinic-grade cold laser cleared for home use, there was no precedent for it anywhere, so the FDA process alone took 18 months. In the UK and Europe, regulation moved more slowly than innovation, which holds British companies like ours back from commercializing at home. I've spent a lot of time lobbying the UK government to catch up. There's finally some good news: the FDA and MHRA have recently signaled they're working towards closer alignment, which should make things easier for British innovators. In the meantime, it's been easier to do business in the U.S., and it shows as over 70% of our revenue comes from the U.S. I'd rather be the one causing some good trouble than waiting for someone else to.

Want to nominate a leader you admire? You can do so here.

Shelley Zalis of The Female Quotient weighs in:

First, nerves are completely normal. Everyone gets them, even the most confident and experienced speakers. One trick I swear by? Say your first few lines to someone backstage before you walk on. It helps get the shaky voice out of your system so it doesn't show up when you step in front of the audience.

As for what to say, your greatest advantage is your lived experience. No one knows your stories, insights, or perspective better than you do. That's what people connect with and remember. Jot down a few key points, practice them, and consider doing a dry run with friends to build confidence and get feedback. The goal isn't to memorize every word. It's to internalize your message so you can focus on the conversation, not the script.

And most importantly, remember that you were asked to speak for a reason. Someone saw value in your perspective and believed you belonged on that stage. Now it's your turn to believe it too. You've got this!

P.S. Got a burning career question? Serve it up here to Dear FQ to score advice from a powerhouse leader in our network.

Early birds, day-thinkers, or night owls, we all have different rhythms, and our best ideas don’t always show up on a 9-to-5 schedule.

Nearly half of employees say their best thinking happens in the early morning, before inboxes, meetings, and notifications take over. For others, creativity kicks in later. Nearly one in four say their best ideas come at night, when the day finally quiets down.

The point isn’t that one time is better than another. It’s knowing when you do your best thinking and, as much as possible, designing your day around it. Save the deep work for your sharpest hours. Your calendar may not always cooperate, but your brain usually knows what it’s doing so that you can operate at your highest potential. 🧠

To advocating for ourselves, period 🩸

Xo,

The FQ

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