In the United States, menstruation is still shrouded in shame and stigma, perpetuating a culture of secrecy and embarrassment. Labeled as "gross" or "disgusting," periods are hidden as society’s dirty little secret.

This taboo is so deeply ingrained in American culture that menstruators are even discriminated against at the cellular level: pre-clinical research in the United States is performed almost entirely on cells sourced from non-menstruating people.

When menstruating people aren't even included in research on health, is it any surprise that they face worse health outcomes, greater rates of adverse events, and lower rates of innovation in sex-specific diseases?

It's time to challenge the harmful norms around menstruation, and narrow the outcome gap menstruators currently face. By celebrating periods as a source of stem cells, and using them for medicinal advancements, The Cure Cup is opening the door to a better future for people with periods.

MOONS is a company that sells FDA-regulated period products. They tasked the agency with delivering on the company’s greater purpose – to end period-stigma and improve health for menstruators – by tackling issues greater than period-care.

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In the USA, menstruators continue to suffer inequality related to their bodily functions.

Even research has historically excluded menstruators’ cells from pre-clinical studies, leading to a world of medicine designed without menstruators in mind.

It turns out… period blood is rich in something that researchers desperately need: stem cells.

In fact, stem cells have the potential to cure major diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. Researchers just haven’t had a scalable source of them to complete this important work.

To accomplish Moons’ mission to narrow health disparities for menstruating people, and show the world just how powerful our periods are, we just needed a way to transform periods from waste product to research resource.

People with periods are not represented equally in research in the United States.

Not only do they only make up about 30% of the scientific workforce.

But they aren’t even given equal representation at the cellular level: 71% of pre-clinical trials study only male cells.

Unsurprisingly, this translates to dire health outcomes:

Even as research advancements have led overall mortality to decrease in most counties of the United States, female mortality has increased in 42.8% of those counties

To tackle these ingrained issues, we must go to the source: periods.

We specially crafted a lid that turns a traditional menstrual cup into a stem cell preservation device. With The Cure Cup, menstruators have the chance to turn period waste into cures for the first time ever.

Built using biomedical principles of clinically-proven preservation vials, The Cure Cup re-positions period blood from a shameful waste product into an invaluable research resource.

But The Cure Cup does more than address a key barrier to the advancement of medicine by challenging period stigma.

It also improves health outcomes for menstruators by increasing their representation in research. After all, menstruating people can only benefit from therapeutic advancements when their cells are included in the research & development of them.

Validated through real user testing, The Cure Cup is opening the door to the future of health.

86% of people with periods have felt embarrassment and shame around their period.

73% hide their period products from view on their way to the bathroom.

65% choose clothes based on what would best disguise a period leak.

Unfortunately, these are only 3 of countless stats that make one thing clear: periods are still shrouded in shame and stigma in the United States.

These facts became the foundation of Moons’ approach their target audience: people with periods.

Rather than join the voices telling people to hide their periods, or camouflage them with flowery or discreet packaging, Moons decided to do the opposite.

They decided to show that periods deserve public recognition and respect.

That the same society that has always shamed people for having periods, should instead have been thanking them all along.

Many phases of work were executed to get to our final product.

Our initial design was vetted through industry experts like Dr. Anderson of Harvard University’s Stem Cell department.

Once we knew our design was scientifically sound, we moved into functional R&D with oversight from one of Dr. Anderson’s advisees.

Countless rounds of prototype iterations were completed over months, obsessing over finding the perfect material, dimensions, and structure.

All of the pieces fell into place to give us our working prototype in March 2023.

Our final product has a layer of PLA for stability, but the outer edges are flexible TPU and the button is silicone. There is also put a thin layer of silicone around the whole thing.

Validated through real user testing, The Cure Cup is in the hands of real menstruators.

Excitingly, The Cure Cup has already cleared initial regulatory requirements required for real user testing. The results of that testing have been overwhelmingly positive.

After using The Cure Cup:

70% of users reported feeling positive about their period for the first time.

80% of them committed to keep donating their period blood.

That already creates 8,400 new stem cell samples - a 210% increase from current collection methods - from our initial users alone.

That number will only grow when The Cure Cup reaches the mass market, bringing an avalanche of new period blood donations with it.

While the results are good for the brand, the implications for humanity are even better. Because every single donation is more than just a sample: it's also a chance for researchers to discover cures for us all.