While early forms of period products involved things like homemade cloths, today there’s an array of fixes that cavewomen and Victorian ladies would’ve marvelled at, from period pants to moon cups.

Now, though, women have been offered a new solution: the AI sanitary pad.

Joii is the world’s first AI-powered menstrual health app, which, when used alongside a specially designed sanitary pad, can measure ‘blood volume and clot size with clinical precision.’

The idea is that, armed with information, anyone who has a period will be able to work out what’s ‘normal’ for them, and notice changes in their period that could indicate wider health issues.

But in a world that’s increasingly sceptical of AI, from concerns about how it’s shaping the job market to the impact it’s having on our love lives, is using this technology a help or a hindrance for women’s health?

How does the AI sanitary pad work to track periods?

Joii is a product that, as founder Justyna Strzeszynska tells Metro, is for ‘anyone who menstruates.’ In particular, this includes younger people who aren’t so used to bleeding every month, and might want to ‘establish their own baseline’ in order to monitor changes in their cycle over time.

She also says the app is to help people who are experiencing symptoms and want ‘clearer information to support conversations with clinicians,’ as well as those who ‘simply want objective insight’.

Justyna says: ‘Most of us are taught to self-assess our bleeding as light, medium, or heavy, without any real reference point. Joii provides measurement rather than estimation.’

She created the app after her own difficult journey towards getting a fibroids diagnosis, which left her anaemic. She says medics would ask her about her flow, but she had no benchmark from which to measure it.

She explains: ‘Measuring blood loss is simply the next step to better understanding our bodies and demanding the care we deserve. We want every woman to have proof, not just pain.’

So, how does it all work? Joii uses AI technology, which is paired with specifically designed pads that claim to ‘instantly measure blood volume and clot size with clinical precision.’

Before putting a pad on, users will need to scan it using their phone, registering it on the app and giving it permission to track blood loss.

Much like other period tracking apps, Joii also gives users the option to track wider period symptoms and rank them based on their severity, including pelvic pain, pain during sex, brain fog, and fatigue.

What does the app flag as ‘abnormal’?

There’s no benchmark that the app would consider ‘abnormal,’ but it does use clinically approved guidance from both the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

These guidelines state that:

• Losing between 10 and 80ml of blood during a period is the expected range
• Any flow that consistently measures about 80ml meets the clinical definition of ‘heavy menstrual bleeding’
• Any flow that’s particularly light or shorter than anticipated can also occur in particular hormonal or medical circumstances, but Justyna notes that Joii doesn’t make ‘assumptions’ about why this might be.

‘Basic body awareness is just as powerful’

But in a world where we already track our steps, sleep and screen time, do we also really need to know the exact volume of blood produced during our periods?

Specialist pelvic health physiotherapist Tiffany Sequeira tells Metro, that measuring blood loss more objectively will likely prove helpful — mainly because terms like ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ can be so subjective.

She says: ‘Heavy menstrual bleeding is defined as around 80ml or more, but most women have no way of knowing where they fall.’

Tiffany says that while clots can tell us a lot, using descriptions like ‘huge’ or ‘tiny’ can, again, be open to interpretation. Clinically, she says that specialists will typically show concern when clots are ‘around the size of a 10p coin,’ or if someone is passing them relatively often.

‘That’s when it becomes more suggestive of heavy menstrual bleeding. If an app can consistently capture clot size and frequency over several cycles, that can give us clearer context, especially in cases of heavy bleeding, fibroids, adenomyosis or suspected endometriosis,’ she notes.

However, Ashfaq Khan, a consultant obstetrician and Harley Street gynaecologist, believes that regularly measuring period bleeding is ‘generally not helpful’ for the average woman — that is, unless it’s undertaken by someone with particularly heavy periods or someone with anaemia, which can cause irregular periods.

When it comes to the coin rule, Ashfaq believes that clots can easily be assessed visually by comparing the two in size without the need for AI intervention.

He tells Metro: ‘Such tools are unlikely to add meaningful value, as they would essentially be measuring the diameter, which can already be done by simple observation.’

He also cites the importance of using a good-quality sanitary pad, one that’s hypoallergenic, biodegradable, and made from safe materials.

With such AI-powered apps, he worries that ‘women may end up choosing an inferior-quality pad simply for the purpose of measuring menstrual blood loss, which can be assessed in several other, more effective ways.’

In his view, it’s ‘not going to help diagnose anything other than menorrhagia (heavy periods) or oligomenorrhoea (irregular periods).’

Tiffany also doesn’t believe that a high-tech app is strictly necessary for women to be able to understand their flow, though it can certainly empower women with the data they might need to walk into medical appointments with confidence.

However, Tiffany adds that ultimately, ‘you’re the expert in your body’.

She says: ‘Taking a few extra seconds in the bathroom to notice how often you’re changing pads, tampons or a cup, and paying attention to symptoms like flooding or clots can help you spot changes early,’ she suggests.

‘Tools like this can be useful, but basic body awareness is just as powerful when it comes to recognising when something isn’t right.’

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