A device that measures female nocturnal “erections” to assess longevity? This is a biohacker’s wet dream.
Every night, Kate Tolo inserts a $15,700 “research-grade erection device” into what her boyfriend and business partner, biohacker Bryan Johnson, called her “top 1 percent” vagina.
In fact, both wear an erection tracker every night. Johnson says he seeks to maintain healthy erections, which some experts say is a predictor of longevity for men.
And Tolo – despite not having a penis – wants in on the action.
Tolo says women also get “erections” — and it’s possible that tracking them could give women similar information about their longevity.
It claims to draw on research conducted more than 40 years ago that could lift the veil on women’s sexual dysfunction and perhaps even show early signs of heart problems, as is the case in men.
A bone to pick
Yes, women really do have “erections,” according to research.
During sleep, blood rushes to the clitoris, making it swell as if aroused. The clitoris is actually very similar to the penis: it is the same organ for the first 2 months of its development in the uterus.
And using devices similar to Tolo’s — a tampon-shaped light sensor, which she calls her “tech tampon” — research has shown that blood flow in vaginal tissues increases spontaneously during sleep, which is also associated with wakefulness.
“The light sensor inside my probe is the same type that smart watches use to read your heart rate,” she explained.
That said, it’s been a long time since someone has published research on the insights this technology can give us about women’s health — or even improved the technology, she says. “The technology was invented in 1975 and has not changed in 50 years.”
Data on Tolo’s vaginal “erection” is not easy to obtain. Her device costs $15,723.68 and looks like “lab equipment in my bedroom,” she said.
“I insert the 5cm probe (and) stick a wire on my leg which is plugged into a machine and a laptop. The laptop can’t go to sleep or we lose the data. I unfortunately learned this from experience.”
Meanwhile, Johnson’s can be purchased online for $275 and connects to a smartphone.
“I’ve been tracking my nocturnal erections for years…It’s one of the best signals I have for vascular health, and it costs $275,” Johnson said. “The gap in our devices sums up the current state of women’s health.”
What the “techno stamp” can tell us
In 1985, a study found that vaginal blood flow changed with sleep stages, increasing during REM sleep. This indicates “a nocturnal erection cycle,” Tolo said. They also found that all women had nocturnal erections, regardless of how easily aroused each participant was.
Tolo says nighttime vaginal blood flow could be a powerful test to determine whether female sexual dysfunction is physical or psychological. For example, if blood flow occurs unconsciously at night but arousal fails during the day, this could indicate a psychological problem.
This test was proposed by researchers in 1985. “It’s so sad that their proposal has been sitting in a journal for 40 years,” she said. “And yet, there is still no test or simple device.”
The second potential use would be to use the “techno-buffer” to predict heart problems. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women.
In men, erectile dysfunction is a known warning sign of cardiovascular disease. Some experts think it’s because the arteries in the penis are much smaller than those in the heart, so plaque buildup will appear there first, making it more difficult to achieve an erection.
Tolo says: Women have the same type of erectile tissue with equally small arteries, but no one has tracked vaginal blood flow over time to see if it predicts heart disease as it does in men.
“In men, the reasoning behind nocturnal tumescence testing is that if erections still occur during sleep, the vascular and neurological machinery is intact – although even in men, the test is more limited than many think,” explained Dr. Hillary Seger, a member of the Tolo care team.
“For women, there is no validated clinical equivalent. Kate’s recordings are the first insight I’ve had into how this signal behaves throughout a full menstrual cycle.”
Tolo has spoken openly about the disparity in women’s health research.
This year, she created “the female protocol” to measure 1,900 biomarkers in blood, urine, stool and the vaginal microbiome, while holding diet, sleep and exercise constant.
Gn Health
