Yuri Gagarin was the first human to successfully travel to space on the Vostok 1 mission on April 12, 1961. Since then, more than 750 astronauts have gone into space, with around 119 of them being women. Interestingly, the first Muslim woman to go into space was Anousheh Ansari in 2006 on the Soyuz TMA-9/8 mission.
While thousands of scientific experiments have been conducted in space, none have been conducted to study menstruation. So next year, Virgin Galactic and Operation Period announced the Operation Period‑01 (OP‑01) mission, led by Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram.
The mission will study the effects of microgravity on menstrual physiology and hormonal health, as well as its implications for individuals who menstruate in space. The findings are expected to benefit future astronauts as well as health innovations on Earth, including reproductive science and understudied chronic diseases.
Currently, female astronauts typically choose to completely suppress their periods through hormonal IUDs or birth control pills. Data on menstruation in space will be important if astronauts want to undertake longer space missions (such as to Mars) or longer stays on the lunar surface as planned by NASA, AESA, JAXA, CNSA, and ROSCOSMOS.
