BAAR, SWITZERLAND / AGILITYPR.NEWS / February 12, 2026 / SGS, the world’s leading testing, inspection and certification company, has entered into a partnership with Berlin-based health tech startup, theblood, to support the development and validation of women’s health diagnostics based on menstrual blood.

The collaboration is designed to open up a new, non-invasive pathway for female-specific health diagnostics by establishing a robust scientific and regulatory foundation. By combining theblood’s innovation in women’s health with SGS’s global expertise in quality, validation and regulatory assurance, the partnership seeks to build long-term trust in this emerging area of healthcare.

As an independent quality and validation partner, SGS will contribute their global pharma expertise in bioanalytical sciences and accompany theblood in its exploration of menstrual blood as a diagnostic matrix. By embedding the highest quality standards early in the innovation process, SGS will help ensure that novel diagnostic approaches are developed with scientific rigor and regulatory awareness from the outset.

Menstrual blood is increasingly recognized as a promising source of female-specific health data. It contains biomarkers that could transform health monitoring, particularly in relation to inflammatory-related disorders such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and other fertility-related conditions. Despite this potential, menstrual blood remains an underexplored biological matrix where medical applications require a high level of scientific rigor, quality and trust.

“Innovative diagnostics only gain relevance when they are supported by scientific credibility and quality,” says Sheida Höhnlinger, Director Business Development at SGS in Austria, Business Assurance Cosmetics & Pharma DACH, who manages the collaboration. “Through this partnership, we are accompanying the responsible development of a new matrix and its path toward trusted applications.”

theblood focuses on the systematic exploration of menstrual blood as a non-invasive, clinically relevant biological matrix. Its work aims to address long-standing data gaps in women’s health and unlock new diagnostic perspectives that contribute to earlier detection, improved medical understanding and better health outcomes for women.

“With SGS accompanying this journey, we are ensuring that the exploration of menstrual blood is guided by scientific rigor, quality and long-term trust,” says Isabelle Guenou, Founder and CEO of theblood.

For new diagnostic matrices to be clinically relevant and adopted, scientific and regulatory stakeholders require evidence that results are accurate, reproducible, generated through controlled- and quality-assured processes. Robust validation is essential to establishing trust and supporting wider adoption, not only among regulators and clinicians, but also among patients whose health decisions rely on reliable diagnostic data.

Through this partnership, SGS and theblood share a commitment to advancing women’s health, supporting the development of credible non-invasive diagnostics, and contributing to a more inclusive and evidence-based future for healthcare.

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