Menstrual products and women's health (CUPS2)

Teenage girls and women alike need safe, effective menstrual protection. Menstrual cups have been around since 1937, but have only recently come to the attention of the general public. To our knowledge, a complete picture of the vaginal microbiota and immunological landscape induced by the use of different menstrual protections, particularly silicone cups, is still lacking. As the demand for "ecological" alternatives to disposable menstrual protection grows, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the effect of these products on women's health. We will establish two cohorts to characterize the impact of using silicone menstrual cups on the vaginal environment, compared with the use of other types of protection such as tampons or sanitary pads. The first large cohort will be cross-sectional, based essentially on a questionnaire. The second cohort will be smaller (150 women) and will enable detailed analyses. At microbiological level, they will use high-throughput sequencing technology. They will be complemented by mass cytometric analyses of key components, notably parabens. At the immune level, mass cytometry technology (CyTOF) will provide us with a unique description of the local cellular response. This will be complemented by cytokine analyses. Finally, these biological and chemical data will be analyzed in the light of meta-data, both behavioral and health-related (urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted infections in particular). In addition to this integrative approach to health, this project will involve the use of mathematical and statistical models to make the best use of the data obtained. The results will provide key information for the scientific community and for the development of public health recommendations.

Publications

Tessandier N, Uysal IB, Elie B, Selinger C, Bernat C, Boué V, Grasset S, Groc S, Rahmoun M, Reyné B, Bender N, Bonneau M, Graf C, Tribout V, Foulongne V, Ravel J, Waterboer T, Hirtz C, Bravo IG., Reynes J, Segondy M, Murall CL, Boulle N, Kamiya T, Alizon S (2023) Does exposure to different menstrual products affect the vaginal environment? Molecular Ecology 32:2592–2601

For further details, see our publications »