Title: Wearable biosensors to support vaginal health in post-menopausal women
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: This project aims to progress the commercial viability of wearable technologies for at-home vaginal microbiome testing, towards vaginal infection management and prevention for the ageing community. This will be achieved through three key objectives: 1) To establish a robust business case with a value proposition that addresses real intimate health needs of the elderly community. 2) To co-design, develop and test non-functional prototypes of our product with potential end-users. 3) To progress the core sensing technology to demonstrate operation under idealised lab settings. Objectives 1) and 2) will be achieved by actively engaging with elderly people and users through focus groups and workshops, leveraging relevant ageing institutes (e.g. Newcastle Centre for Ageing and Inequalities) to access participant groups. This will ensure that any proposed product will be grounded in the real needs of elderly people and address their pain points. Meanwhile, the combined outcomes from objectives 2) and 3) will allow for a basic functional prototype (MVP) in readiness for future user testing under real-life conditions.

Lay abstract: Vaginal health has been systematically neglected due to a combination of taboo, inadequate policy, and funding, contributing to continually poor health outcomes for females. In particular, vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis can impact over ~25% of post-menopausal female. However, limited medical development has resulted in a lack of available information, products and support, resulting in high recurrence rates of up to 50%. These conditions lead to a lower quality of life and an increased risk towards other complications if left untreated, ranging from urinary tract infections (UTIs) to chronic diseases such as endometriosis. Meanwhile, the medical challenges are compounded by social taboos. Females are made to feel ashamed about their intimate health due to today's societal norms, leading to many not seeking medical assistance when needed. Moreover, ~80% of females aged 50+ in the UK reported instances of not being listened to by healthcare professionals, while only 25% can access appropriate medical services in a timely manner [2]. Given such social barriers to medical access, tools that support at-home self-care approaches for prevention and treatment are highly needed. (Female = women, transgender women, women with transgender experience.) A crucial factor in vaginal health is the vaginal microbiota as it enables prevention of vaginal conditions ranging from bacterial vaginosis to UTIs. However, keeping a healthy microbiota state is challenging since its composition can vary daily, influenced by factors such as hygiene products, sexual activity and medications. This is even more challenging for post-menopausal women due to the declining estrogen levels. Currently, whenever a person wants to check their vaginal health at home, there are two options: a vaginal pH self-test or an at-home vaginal microbiome test. The pH tests have a low price point (<£10) and are accessible through pharmacies, but require an invasive vaginal swab. Importantly, pH alone is insufficient for actionable medical recommendations to improve the microbiota. Moreover, these tests do not offer any educational or support material besides a simple symptom lookup chart. At-home vaginal microbiome tests analyse a self-collected vaginal swab using gene sequencing (e.g., Juno Bio, Evvy). These offer large volumes of health information but are expensive (>£125), have a long lead time (10 days) and only offer a single snapshot in time. Such limitations preclude their frequent use, making them unsuitable for understanding day to day variations in the vaginal microbiota. This project will explore the utility and commercial feasibility of smart wearables to enable rapid, at-home vaginal microbiome testing for the elderly community. We envision our solution as a supportive tool to help females to reconnect with their intimate health, enable proactive self-care and to give them the confidence to seek help when needed. This individual awareness will be a catalyst to breaking the culture of silence surrounding intimate care and bringing female health to the forefront of public discourse, enabling a cultural change in female intimate care. The primary emphasis of this project is to engage with people through focus groups and workshops to better understand current user journeys (e.g., how elderly females seek medical information, what at-home prevention and treatment methods are currently used), and identify existing needs. From this, we will co-design and iteratively test smart wearables prototypes with a small user group. Alongside user engagement, we will progress the core sensing technology to demonstrate operation under idealised lab settings.

Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND CHILDBIRTH;INFECTION