The wait is hard enough
without the needles.
A fertility cycle is measured in blood: estradiol, LH, progesterone, tracked every few days through stimulation. For many patients that has meant a needle in the same arm again and again, early mornings in the clinic queue, at the most stressful time of their lives. Lancet-free microsampling rewrites it: a small touch-activated device on the upper arm, self-collected at home by the patient, no venous draw, the same hormones, on the same clinical platform to your laboratory.
The treatment is gentle. The monitoring wasn’t.
Ovarian stimulation is watched in near-real time: estradiol climbing, follicles growing, the trigger timed to a rising LH. That means blood drawn again and again across a single cycle, often at dawn, before work, in the same tender arm. The science of fertility care has moved on; the blood draw hasn’t. For a patient already carrying the emotional weight of treatment, the repeated needle is the part that wears them down, and the clinic visit that has to happen at 7am is the part that leaks into the rest of life.
A hormone sample, drawn at home.
The platform’s answer is YourBio TAP, touch-activated and applied to the upper arm, a halo of microneedles, not a blade. The patient collects it themselves, at home, on the morning the protocol calls for: a real whole-blood sample the laboratory runs for estradiol, LH, FSH, progesterone and hCG like any other. Because fertility patients are adults, this is exactly where at-home self-collection belongs: no clinic queue, no supervision required, no venous draw. The result follows the same route to your accredited laboratory, timed to the cycle, not the clinic’s hours.
The first clinic to do this.
A fertility clinic.
The Columbia University Fertility Center in New York put lancet-free collection into routine fertility monitoring, and, by their own account, became the first place anywhere to use this kind of technology in clinical care, in any specialty.
Getting there took two things at once, which is the part worth noticing: a way to collect blood that patients would tolerate, and laboratory chemistry able to read hormones from the very small amount of blood it gives you. A device on its own would not have been enough. Neither would the assay. That is the same pairing this platform is built on.
Dozens of Columbia fertility patients have now been monitored this way. The ones who felt it most were the ones whose veins had already been through something else: a patient who had come through sixteen weeks of chemotherapy for breast cancer, another whose veins had scarred to the point where blood was being taken from the back of her hand. She went on to have a healthy baby boy.
“My veins became so scarred at one point, the phlebotomist started taking blood from the veins in my hand. The device is so easy to use and you don’t really feel it. Taking blood this way could make it much easier for some women to continue with their journey through fertility treatment.”
Gjilberta Lucaj · patient · Columbia University Fertility CenterColumbia Fertility Center Takes the Pain Out of Blood DrawsColumbia University Irving Medical Center · 4:11
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play: no third-party request, no cookie, before that. The film is Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s, not ours. Watch it on YouTube →
Read the full story at Columbia University Irving Medical Center →
Quotes, figures and film are Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s own, reporting their programme, not ours, and not a Humans Nexus study. TAP is the YourBio device curated on the Humans Nexus platform. “Painless” throughout is how their patients and clinicians describe it; the measured figure is the pilot pain score above.
Not a promise. A record.
The clinic in that film published what it found. Zev Williams and his team compared self-collected TAP capillary blood against a standard venous draw for fertility hormones, and titled the paper in Fertility & Sterility with their conclusion in it: painless and needle-free. That is their word for it, not ours, but it is a peer-reviewed record rather than a promise, which is the whole point of putting it here. Independently, capillary blood has been shown a valid alternative to a venous draw for the two hormones a cycle turns on, progesterone and estradiol.
“When we learned about the TAP Micro Select device, we saw a clear opportunity to make this necessary but distressing aspect of the fertility journey much easier and more tolerable for patients.”
Zev Williams, MD, PhD · Chief, Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Columbia UniversityThese are independent studies of capillary blood collection, including the YourBio TAP device that Humans Nexus curates on its platform, not our own trials. Suitability is confirmed per hormone, assay and laboratory: some pre-analytical factors, serum-separator gel for example, can affect measured estradiol, so each analyte is validated with the accredited laboratory before results are reported.
Self-collected, fully accounted for.
A sample taken at a kitchen table still has to count like one taken in a clinic. Flow carries the record: the patient’s identity attested, consent recorded, the collection guided and confirmed on the morning it’s due. From there it follows the same route as every other sample, clinical-courier pickup, documented chain of custody, an accredited laboratory, and the hormone result returns to the fertility team in time for the day’s dosing decision. Because the patient is an adult, no supervision is required; the software does the accounting the clinic used to do at the desk.
Fertility care, fewer needles.
Good to know.
Can fertility hormones really be measured without a needle?
Without a lancet and without a venous draw, yes. YourBio TAP collects whole capillary blood from the upper arm through a halo of microneedles rather than a lancet or a venous draw, and the laboratory runs it for estradiol, LH, FSH, progesterone and hCG on its standard assays. A Columbia University study published in Fertility & Sterility compared self-collected TAP capillary blood with a venous draw for exactly this purpose; independently, capillary blood has been shown a valid alternative to venous for progesterone and estradiol.
Is it accurate enough to dose a cycle?
Accuracy is confirmed per hormone, assay and laboratory before any result is reported, the same standard as any capillary method. Published concordance for reproductive hormones is strong, but pre-analytical factors matter, some serum-separator tubes can lower measured estradiol for instance, so each analyte is validated with the accredited laboratory rather than assumed.
Who collects the sample?
The patient, themselves, at home. Fertility patients are adults, so this is where at-home self-collection belongs, no clinic visit and no supervision required. Flow guides the collection, attests identity and records consent so the sample is fully accounted for.
How does it reach the laboratory in time?
Like every sample the platform tracks: clinical-courier pickup, temperature-managed where the assay requires it, documented chain of custody from the doorstep to laboratory accessioning, timed so the hormone result is back for the day’s dosing decision.
What can be tested?
The device collects liquid whole blood, the same matrix as a venous draw, in microsample volume. Beyond the core cycle hormones, the validated panel is confirmed with the accredited laboratory for the specific programme.
Library Capillary blood for fertility
The peer-reviewed record for reproductive hormones measured from capillary blood: TAP device studies, agreement with venous sampling across devices, and the honest limits, including the dried-spot and earlobe work that shows where the matrix, not the device, sets the boundary. Every paper opens its page in the OpenSampling Library, with a link to an open-access copy where one exists.
E-cigarette use (vaping) and cigarette smoking are associated with reduced markers of ovarian reserve: a cross-sectional study of 16,087 women
Read in the LibraryComparison of serum anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations measured in capillary fingerstick and venous samples from Korean reproductive-aged women
Read in the LibraryFrom venipuncture to self-sampling dried blood spots: a shift in monitoring testosterone levels
Read in the LibraryLarger-volume capillary blood sampling is a valid alternative to assess progesterone and 17β-estradiol for cycle phase identification
Read in the LibraryEvaluation of reference ranges of four circulating sex steroids from dried blood spots in women aged 18-40 years
Read in the LibrarySystematic Reduction in Estradiol and Testosterone Measurements due to Serum Separator Gel in Blood Collection Tubes: Implications for At-Home Fertility Testing
Read in the Library
One free account opens every finding in the OpenSampling Library. The same account signs you in to Pulse.
These citations describe the published evidence for the collection formats and devices, not claims about specific Humans Nexus assays, which are validated per analyte and per laboratory.
Take the needle out of the hardest wait.
Build the monitoring your patients don’t dread: lancet-free hormone collection, self-taken at home, on a clinical-grade platform to your laboratory.