Five Breakthroughs in Women’s Health That You Should Know About
13th March 2026
Following International Women’s Day this week and in advance of supporting FemHealth Integrates on 19th March , we’ve been looking into some of the biggest advancements in women’s health over the last 12-months.
After decades of underinvestment, women’s health science continues to move further into the spotlight – though there’s still a big gap to close in terms of access and equality. Here, we look at five of the most significant developments of the past year, from smarter cancer screening to new daily pills for painful conditions.
Period Blood Could Replace the Smear Test
One of the most talked-about studies of early 2026, published in The BMJ, found that HPV — the virus responsible for the vast majority of cervical cancers — can be reliably detected from menstrual blood collected on a sanitary pad. The study enrolled more than 3,000 women and found that pad-collected samples showed a sensitivity of 94.7% for detecting pre-cancerous abnormalities, comparable to clinician-collected samples at 92.1%.
The appeal is obvious. Rather than an often-uncomfortable clinic appointment, a woman could simply save a small strip from her sanitary pad at home. The study also explored digital integration, with participants receiving results and follow-up advice through a mobile app. Experts caution it won’t work for but as an additional option for the millions who currently avoid screening, it’s a significant step.
The First Daily Pills for Endometriosis Reach the NHS
Around 1.5 million women in the UK live with endometriosis. For years, women with the condition faced a stark choice: hormonal injections, surgery, or simply managing the pain. In May 2025, a new daily pill, linzagolix, was approved for NHS use in England, becoming the second take-at-home treatment approved after relugolix combination therapy received the green light just months earlier.
In clinical trials, linzagolix significantly reduced painful periods and non-menstrual pelvic pain compared with placebo. It works by blocking the hormones that drive unwanted tissue growth and is taken alongside low-dose HRT to prevent side effects. While currently limited to patients who haven’t responded to earlier treatments, it represents a meaningful expansion of options for a condition that has long been undertreated.
Menopause Hormone Therapy Gets a Major Reassessment
In late 2025, the FDA announced plans to remove the decades-old “Black Box” warning from menopause hormone therapy, reflecting updated scientific evidence and a more sophisticated understanding of when and how treatment is appropriate. The warning had been in place for over 20 years, and many believe it deterred millions of women from a treatment that could have helped them.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary noted that tens of millions of women had been denied the long-term health benefits of hormone therapy because of medical dogma rooted in a distortion of risk. The shift doesn’t mean HRT is without nuance (as timing and patient profile still matter) but it signals a broader cultural and scientific reckoning with how menopause has historically been treated as a lifestyle inconvenience rather than a serious health transition.
Big Data Cracks Open the Mystery of Endometriosis
One of the most persistent frustrations with endometriosis is the diagnostic delay. The gold standard for diagnosis is still surgery, and diagnosis can take up to a decade. A landmark study from UC San Francisco, published in Cell Reports Medicine in July 2025, used computational methods to analyse anonymised patient records from six health centres and found over 600 correlations between endometriosis and other conditions. These ranged from expected links like infertility and autoimmune disease, to unexpected ones including certain cancers, asthma, and eye-related diseases.
The work reframes endometriosis as a multi-system disorder and could help clinicians spot it far earlier, potentially cutting years off the average diagnostic journey.
A Blood Test to Detect Breast Cancer Earlier Than Mammograms
Astrin Biosciences launched Certitude — a blood test built from machine learning that analyses thousands of proteins. Early clinical results showed it detected 2.5 times more instances of breast cancer than 3D mammograms. By not relying on imaging through dense tissue, it can pick up cancers that conventional screening misses.
While a positive result requires further imaging to confirm, the test represents a potentially transformative addition to the early detection toolkit. This is particularly relevant for women with dense breast tissue, who are both at higher risk and harder to screen effectively.
These five stories share a common thread: science is finally catching up with conditions and experiences that have long been dismissed, under-researched, or poorly served by the tools available. There is still a long way to go, and we’re proud to be part of the team supporting FemHealth Integrates next week and showcasing important conversations to push progress in the field.
