Why are we so afraid of menses? In his TedX talk, Juan unpacks how taboos have severely hindered advances in female reproductive health. He describes why the endometrium is more than just an incredibly bloody tissue, but one of the most fascinating and complex tissues in the human body. Finally, Juan explains how engineering, science and education are coming together to help unlock its secrets and come up with solutions for complex reproductive diseases. Juan Gnecco is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, the principal investigator of the Laboratory of Reproductive Engineering, and an associate principal investigator at the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts University. Dr. Gnecco obtained a B.S. in Biotechnology from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) where he developed the first Organ-on-Chip model of the perivascular endometrium. He conducted his post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Dept. of Biological Engineering. He is part of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation initiative to unify experimental models for endometriosis, a member of the Gates Foundation Global Health Integrative Organoid Consortium (2021) and was selected as a Rising Star in Engineering and Health by Columbia University (2020). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx