To measure hormones that affect fertility, reproductive health, and menstruation, researchers from the Imperial College London and The University of Hong Kong, have developed a new technique that works more quickly and cheaply than current methods.
Many women around the world suffer from severe reproductive health problems such as infertility and early menopause. According to the German News Agency, doctors usually diagnose these conditions by carrying out a blood test to measure the amount of luteinizing hormone (LH), the top culprit behind these conditions.
In the study, researchers created a device connected to a robotic system named RAPTER. This device detects hormonal changes in the woman's body. It can be used to measure the LH hormone levels in blood samples from patients every 10 minutes and provide quick results.
"Reproductive health issues are common amongst women in the UK and around the world. Diagnosis of some of these conditions can be lengthy resulting in delays to treatment. The new technology will be able to give clinicians a faster and more accurate diagnosis of hormone pulsatility that affects reproductive health, which could lead to better treatments for women," The Science Daily website quoted Professor Waljit Dhillo from the Imperial College London as saying.
In the study, which took place between 2015 and 2019, researchers used the RAPTER to measure LH pulse patterns from 441 blood samples of women who suffer from different health conditions. The large-scale device then gave an immediate reading. The researchers confirmed that the new technique is also able to distinguish between different reasons leading to hormonal changes among women. Unlike current methods, the test is low-cost and can provide accurate results.
