Your menstrual blood samples are processed on the same instruments that venous blood samples are processed on. We use the same instruments, reagents, and general processes to get your Q-Pad results that we would with liquid blood samples.
The key difference between menstrual blood samples and venous blood samples is that menstrual blood samples use dried blood spot (DBS) technology for sample collection. DBS technology is commonly used for newborn screening and has benefits such as requiring less volumes and having longer shelf life. The additional advantage of the Q-Pad using DBS is that we are able to have a noninvasive test.