At CES 2026, health tech startup Vivoo just turned the everyday menstrual pad into a medical device. The company's new FlowPad measures follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels directly on the pad itself, letting users track fertility and hormonal health without a lab visit. At $4 to $5 per pad, it's betting that women want reproductive insights built into something they're already using.
The menstrual pad just got a lot smarter. At CES 2026, health tech startup Vivoo announced the FlowPad, a roughly $4 to $5 menstrual pad that doubles as an at-home hormone test for follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Users can view results directly from the pad itself or snap a photo with the Vivoo app for deeper insights into their hormonal patterns.
Wellness tech companies have been getting increasingly aggressive about turning bodily fluids into health data points. From sweat to saliva to blood, the market's been flooded with devices trying to extract actionable health information from whatever the body produces. But embedding a hormone test directly into something people use multiple times a month? That's a different kind of genius, or at least a different kind of audacious.
"We started as a vaginal pH tracking liner for your panties that would change color with vaginal discharge," Vivoo CEO and cofounder Miray Tayfun tells The Verge. "It's evolved into a period pad with microfluidic channels that capture blood, and under the pad, there's a window that shows your FSH levels." The concept sounds simple enough, but the engineering underneath is where things get complex.
The main challenge? Blood dries fast. Most at-home blood tests require users to dilute samples with a solution before testing. Vivoo had to solve that problem while keeping the pad thin enough to actually wear. The solution involved a two-layer design. The first layer, what they call a "capillary capture layer," draws in blood and filters out particulates. The second layer, the "biomarker reaction layer," contains stabilized reagents that chemically react with the blood to detect FSH levels. Essentially, you bleed into the pad during your normal day, and when you change it, you get your results displayed in a window on the back that looks remarkably similar to a pregnancy test.
Tayfun emphasized that the real innovation here isn't just the technology but the philosophy behind it. "The main goal here is to make one hygienic pad less than $5, so a period won't cost you more than $30," she told The Verge. It's a pointed reminder that menstrual products remain expensive for many people, and adding $50+ in testing costs on top of that isn't realistic for widespread adoption.
