Urine tests to give women control over their hormones
PMS? Menopause symptoms? Deal with it! For photonics professor Carlota Canalias Gomez at KTH, that attitude became the starting point for an unexpected research direction. Today, she is helping to develop a urine test designed to make hormone levels measurable in everyday life and bring new understanding to a long-neglected field, with the potential to reduce gender disparities in healthcare.
Hormones influence almost every aspect of our lives, from energy and mood to fertility and menopause. Yet women’s hormonal health remains one of the least studied areas of medicine.
Now, a research project at KTH aims to make hormones measurable in daily life. Using a simple and affordable home test, users will be able to monitor their hormone levels through a urine sample. The results are analysed via a mobile phone, making it possible to track the body’s signals over time.
Carlota Canalias Gomez , a photonics researcher, is one of the project’s scientists. She says women’s hormonal health has long been overlooked.
“In the past, the topic wasn’t even on the map. If you had PMS, you were told to deal with it – preferably in silence. The same applies to menopause, where the ‘solution’ might be to bring a change of clothes to work to cope with hot flashes.”
Blood tests are limited
One reason for the knowledge gap lies in how hormones are measured today. Hormone levels are typically assessed through blood tests taken during scheduled healthcare visits. The challenge is that hormone levels fluctuate constantly, from day to day and sometimes hour to hour.
“Information from current blood tests is often limited,” says Canalias Gomez. “With a urine test that can be done at home, at any time, the measurements can provide a more reliable picture.”
The data is processed through a mobile application, where software measures, filters and quantifies the signals before analysing them using machine learning.
The test could help users understand their hormonal balance, follow cycle-related changes and detect deviations linked to stress or hormonal and metabolic shifts.
That a physicist became involved in hormone research is partly rooted in personal experience. When Canalias Gomez began experiencing severe mood swings during premenopause, she was told it was impossible to determine whether her symptoms were hormonal or signs of depression.
“When knowledge is lacking, it creates frustration and uncertainty. Of course, some gynaecologists have long worked in this field, but there has been a knowledge gap that many people my age can relate to.”
Knowledge based on men
Medical diagnostics have historically been based largely on male physiology, contributing to significant gaps in understanding women’s health. The project emerged against this backdrop.
The research team currently consists of three researchers from different disciplines. Canalias Gomez and biochemist Cecilia Williams met through a gender research initiative at KTH, and the idea for the hormone project took shape after discussions at Inspire Lab – a KTH centre supporting technologies aimed at improving conditions for women. The team also includes fibre-optics expert Michael Fokine, who previously developed key elements of the underlying technology.
“We’re all curious about how the others think, and that mix creates new ideas.”
The researchers hope the test will not only help individuals better understand their bodies but also generate new knowledge about hormonal health. The platform could also be adapted to measure other biomarkers, potentially expanding its applications in the future.
“This way of doing research is unconventional for me, coming from a background in pure physics,” says Canalias Gomez.
“But we hope the information will benefit both individuals and researchers — and ultimately contribute to greater equality.”
Text: Anna Gullers (agullers@kth.se)