After my first miscarriage, I became obsessed with getting pregnant again, and spent a lot of time on various miscarriage/ttc forums. I’d waited two months to allow my body to recover, and when I was ready to try again, I wanted to increase the chances of getting pregnant right away. Many of the women on the forums were experts at tracking their cycles by charting their basal body temperature, checking their cervical mucus, and being attuned to their cycles. They knew exactly when they ovulated and what days they were most likely to conceive.
I’m an obsessive person, but I’m also a lazy person. So when I read about the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor, I knew that I wanted to give it a try first. The Fertility Monitor detects your high and peak fertility days with 99% accuracy. Since you can only conceive a couple of days a month, you want to know which days you’re most likely to get pregnant. I’d already had a good friend as a guinea pig — after trying to get pregnant for 6 months unsuccessfully, I suggested she try the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor, and she got pregnant that month. I was sold.
Here’s how it works. The following chart shows an average woman’s menstrual cycle. Her two most fertile days are 24-36 hours before ovulation, and the day of ovulation, which the Fertility Monitor detects by the presence of the luteinizing hormone. But because sperm can live inside the female body for up to 5 days, it also tracks the 5 high fertility days prior to ovulation by detecting the rising estrogen in your system. So if you do the baby dance on your most fertile days, you’ve optimized your chances of getting pregnant that month.
Here’s how the monitor works. You set it to the first day of your cycle and turn it on each day. It’ll tell you when to start using the test sticks, at which time you’ll pee on a test stick first thing in the morning when the concentration of your hormones is the highest. Then place the stick inside the monitor, and you’ll have a result in 5 minutes.
The monitor isn’t cheap — a starter kit that includes the monitor, 3 months of test sticks, and 3 home pregnancy tests costs $290.
Although the monitor didn’t help me get pregnant, it did help me identify that I wasn’t ovulating at all. Otherwise I may have tried to conceive for months before going to see my doctor. So for that, I’m very thankful.
Have you tried the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor? Would you ever try using such a monitor?
Preparing to TTC part 5 of 8
1. Preparing to TTC by Checklists2. My Pre-TTC Toolkit by Mrs. Blue
3. My Preconception Toolkit by Mrs. Tricycle
4. Charting Fertility by mrs. green
5. Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor by Mrs. Bee
6. The Case for Not Charting or Using OPKs by Mrs. Blue
7. Starting our TTC Journey: Screening for Jewish Genetic Disorders by Mrs. Confetti
8. TTC, Pregnancy & Parenting Acronyms by Checklists
honeydew / 7968 posts
fyi, no biggie, but your tag has an extra “i” in fertility….
i have used the same fertility monitor. i’ve heard lots of success stories. unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. but i’d recommend it to anyone. i think my girls and my hubby’s boys just weren’t getting together, which was not the fault of the fertility monitor.
pea / 7 posts
I used it, but honestly gave up before getting pregnant because I didn’t find it added value beyond using OPK sticks, it just was a much bigger price tag. it didn’t give me any new information and I always got my peak reading the day after getting an OPK+, which made me wonder if I would have missed part of the window if I had relied on the monitor only. (yes, I was obsessing enough to try both at once!) I also think in the case where you are having ovulatory issues (I am in the camp too), you don’t need a $300 monitor to tell you that – OPKs will give you the same answer (never positive if there’s no LH surge). but really, charting is best because you can have a surge and still not ovulate. I thought charting with OPKs, if you are willing to put in the effort, was the most informative answer. but I certainly shelled out for that monitor before coming to that conclusion because if there was any chance it would help, I wanted it!
cherry / 153 posts
I’m not ready to drop that kind of money on something like this, but I did decide to buy some OPKs to see if they shed any light on whether or not I’m even ovulating.
That’s pretty cool, though. I’m definitely a gadget lover so I could see myself getting on board with something like this!
grapefruit / 4400 posts
I don’t think I’ll be using any sort of charting/monitoring/etc. I’m currently in the “if it’s happens, it’ll happen” state of mind… but we’ll see how I feel a year down the road if we’re still not pregnant!
honeydew / 7968 posts
i sorta agree with kkuether. i used the OPKs (evenings) with the FM sticks (mornings) and the OPKs did pick it up earlier, but i think it’s because i did it at night. i think you typically surge in the evenings (at least that’s the case with me).
the good thing about the FM is that it gives you high fertility days. because there is a RANGE of days that you are fertile because the sperm lasts for a few days. OPKs do not. OPKs just give you that 1 day of surge.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Thanks for this post! My husband and I haven’t started TTCing yet, but I know that when we do, I really don’t want it to take too long to get pregnant (haha, I’m impatient). It’s great to know about the options I have to help improve our chances of getting pregnant!
pea / 7 posts
I tried OPK tests and ended up spending more due to having irregular periods. I also was never consistent with charting my BBT and found the monitor although expensive more convenient. Over time, I didn’t have to use as many test sticks to determine when I was ovulating. I didn’t get pregnant using it, but at least I was ovulating. I would try anything to have a baby!
pomelo / 5628 posts
I bought it and used it for about 6 months. I would get a ton of high days, like 10 at least, and then finally a peak. When I started temping I stopped the CBFM because the peaks were not lining up with my temps and I started to doubt it. I also was getting too stressed out having to hold my pee every single morning. I got mine for $115 on ebay (new) and 30 sticks were like $50.
guest
We have been TTC for 6 months (8 cycles since my cycles are on the shorter end), and we use OPKs as well as the online charting tool Fertility Friend. I don’t actually chart by BBT, but I use Fertility Friend to trach my cervical mucus, menstruation, and OPK results. It seems that the benefits you describe of the Fertility Monitor are similar to the benefits I have found with Fertility Friend and OPKs. Fertility Friend tracks my cycles and each cycle gives me a range of “likely to be fertile” days based on the average length of my cycle and my average day of ovulation. I then use the OPKs on those days to determine when I have actually ovulated. Although we are still not pregnant, I feel that the using these two things has given me the same benefits of a Fertility Monitor without the hefty price tag.
GOLD / pineapple / 12662 posts
Yep! It worked for me the first month I used it. I was 4 months in to my 6 month window to conceive (before intervention) and it was exactly what I needed. I’m due in early September!