Menstruation in Space Will Be Studied for the First Time With 'Operation Period'

For the first time ever, scientists are planning to study menstruation — commonly called a period — while in space. A non-profit organization called Operation Period is behind the mission, which is set to launch in 2027. The team will travel on a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight to collect data in microgravity, the low-gravity environment found in space. Even though women have been going to space for decades, no one has ever run a formal scientific study on this topic before.

The mission is called Operation Period-01, or OP-01. Its founders, Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram, will fly to space themselves to do the research firsthand. The two women will also become some of the youngest South Asian women ever to travel to space. They started their non-profit together nine years ago and have been working toward this goal ever since.

Operation Period was created to help give everyone easy access to menstrual products. The group calls this idea 'menstrual freedom.' Over time, the founders realized that the same problems they saw on Earth also existed in space medicine. Astronauts did not have enough data about how periods work in microgravity, which made it harder for them to make informed choices about their own health.

Bangalore has a background in physics and astronomical engineering. She also trained in bioastronautics, which is the study of how the human body works in space, and spent time working at NASA. 'I've always been fascinated by space and human space exploration. It's what's always excited me as a child, and I've kept that curiosity going,' she said. She never expected her two passions — menstrual health and space — would come together like this.

Right now, most astronauts choose to stop their periods completely while on a mission. They do this using hormonal IUDs or birth control pills. This is a personal choice, but experts say astronauts should have more options. Without real data from space, it is hard to know what is truly safe or what supplies are actually needed.

This issue goes back a long time. In 1983, when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, NASA engineers asked her if 100 tampons was the right number to pack for a six-day trip. People look back on that question and laugh today because the number was wildly too high. But that moment also shows how little thought was given to menstrual health in space planning back then — and even now.

The lack of good data could become a bigger problem as space missions get longer. Future trips to the Moon or beyond could last many months. Mission planners need accurate information about what supplies astronauts will need and how periods behave in microgravity. Without that data, it is much harder to keep astronauts healthy and prepared.

The team has not yet shared the exact details of what experiments they will run on OP-01. They said that information will come out closer to the launch date. However, Bangalore explained that while limited data suggests it is generally safe to menstruate in space, there is not nearly enough detailed information for long-duration missions. 'We don't have enough data to continue to assist with patient resource allocation for mission planners,' she said.

The research from OP-01 will also help people back on Earth. Bangalore pointed out that there are major gaps in menstrual health research even here at home. For example, menstrual product companies had been testing their products with saltwater instead of actual menstrual blood, leading to incorrect absorbency ratings. This may have caused doctors to miss cases of heavy menstrual bleeding, a condition thought to affect about 20% of American menstruators.

The team knows that one mission will not answer every question, but they see OP-01 as an important first step. 'Our hope is to continue to iterate this research so that we can do future suborbital flights, as well as orbital flights, to continue to create larger data sets,' Bangalore said. The goal is for this mission to point the way toward the bigger questions scientists should ask next. Interest in the mission also grew after a video of Bangalore performing an early experiment in low gravity went viral, sparking millions of views and wide public conversation about periods and space.