Bryan Johnson Is Storing His Girlfriend's Period Blood at -80°C and Calling It Science

The Freezer Full of Love

Johnson announced the whole thing on Thursday with characteristically zero self-awareness. "Kate's period blood is in my -80 °C freezer. Around 10 mL," he wrote, per The Guardian, alongside a photo of Tolo. A romantic by any measure.

This is a man who, according to The Guardian, has already infused himself with a literal liter of his teenage son's plasma, donated blood to his own father, and posted his son's nocturnal erection data on the internet with the tag line "Raise children to stand tall, be firm, and be upright." So the period blood thing is, in context, not even close to the weirdest item on his resume. That is genuinely terrifying.

The 14 Million Data Points Girlfriend

Here is what's actually happening, or at least what Johnson says is happening. He and Tolo are tracking "14 million data points" on her menstrual cycle, which Johnson describes as a "world first for female health." The Guardian reports that her daily protocol involves more than 100 tasks, more than 50 devices, and a 12-person medical team monitoring the whole operation.

She swallows a temperature pill. She blows into a metabolism tracker. And at exactly 9:42 pm, she inserts what Johnson calls a "techno tampon device." When the Independent asked what that was, Johnson said they'd be sharing more on that soon. Great. Can't wait.

Tolo, for her part, is apparently on board. She replied to Johnson's menstrual blood post with "Thanks for looking after me bby," which is either sweet or a Stockholm Syndrome text message, depending on your read of the situation. In a Wall Street Journal feature titled "Bryan Johnson's Girlfriend Wants to Share Her Body with the World," she said she's doing all of this "because I think that this is our path toward women being understood in the world and being seen."

The Part Where There's Actually a Real Problem Worth Solving

To be completely fair for one paragraph: the underlying issue Johnson and Tolo are nominally addressing is real and serious. The Guardian points out that it wasn't until 1993 that Congress passed a law requiring women and minorities to be included in clinical research trials at all. Period products were tested using saline solution instead of actual human blood until a study in 2023 finally corrected that. Menstruation is chronically understudied. Women's pain is chronically dismissed. These are facts, and they matter.

So when Johnson says "women are not well understood medically," he is correct. Credit where it's due, even if it's painful to give it. The problem is not the goal. The problem is everything else.

The Part Where They're Trying to Sell You Something

Johnson and Tolo own a company called Immortals. It sells supplements. And according to The Guardian, citing the Wall Street Journal, the company is "on the verge of launching products for women."

Read that again slowly. The man who is conducting a very public, extremely online women's health initiative involving a techno tampon and a frozen blood supply is about to launch a line of women's products through his own supplement company. The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi put it plainly: this all feels "a lot like a marketing campaign."

Tolo has a background in fashion. Johnson has a background in tech. Neither of them has a background in gynecology, endocrinology, or any of the other medical fields that would normally be required before you started positioning yourself as a pioneer in women's health research. But they do have 14 million data points and a -80 degree freezer, so sure, let's see where this goes.

The Long History of Bryan Johnson Sharing Things About His Family Online

It bears repeating, because it somehow keeps getting glossed over in coverage of Johnson: this man posted erection data about his teenage son on the internet. Not in a medical journal. On X. And tagged him. "His duration is two minutes longer than mine," Johnson wrote, per The Guardian. The son's name is Talmage. He was 19 at the time.

Johnson calls Talmage his "blood boy," which is the nickname he invented after the two of them swapped a liter of plasma back and forth in what Johnson framed as a longevity experiment. His son donated plasma to him. He donated plasma back. They called it science. Again: this is the same person now positioning himself as an advocate for women's health. The pattern here is not a man with a genuine research agenda. It is a man who processes his relationships as content.