Fertility Monitors

[fermat]

My wife and I just had number six and want to invest in a fertility monitor to aid us in avoiding pregnancy.

We are looking at OvaCue and ClearBlue Easy. Has anyone used these? If you use the OvaCue, do you also have the vaginal sensor?

What are you overall thoughts on either?

Thanks!

 

[catholicanne]

Honestly, I think you and your wife should look into NFP. If you want to use the fertility monitor alongside NFP then fine but there is SO much to learn about your bodies that I don’ think a monitor is enough. Good luck,

 

[fermat]

My wife and I have been using Creighton for about 10 years. Our last two children were from a very early and very late ovulations. In both those cases the observations were probably so small that we missed them.

The use of the monitor is as a back up to Creighton, sort of a belt’s and suspenders approach

 

[smores]

So, this is an old post . . . Wondering if the original poster invested in one and if so how’s it going? We too are looking for a “belt and suspenders approach” (Great analogy!)

 

[fermat]

Yes, we got the OvaCue four months ago and so far so good. My wife uses the oral sensor in the morning and the vaginal sensor in the evenings. The vaginal is to help confirm ovulation.

It has been an interesting experience because I help out in the evenings. My wife is very uncomfortable using the sensor herself, so I insert it and take the reading. In the process, I get a first hand account of the observations. Over the last four months I have been able to observe her go from not fertile, to fertile, and back to not fertile.

The oral readings will help predict ovulation and we use that as support for her daily observations, and we take the most conservative reading. For example, this month the OvaCue is predicting ovulation on day 14. She typically ovulates around day 18, so we wait until we get a confirmed ovulation and no observations for three days. It may seem like an overabundance of caution, but it makes us both feel better.

Hope this is helpful!

 

[smores]

Very helpful, I thank you for your response! I am going to go check out your blog now, I saw it posted in your signature line

 

[PTL]

The oral readings will help predict ovulation and we use that as support for her daily observations, and we take the most conservative reading. For example, this month the OvaCue is predicting ovulation on day 14. She typically ovulates around day 18, so we wait until we get a confirmed ovulation and no observations for three days. It may seem like an overabundance of caution, but it makes us both feel better.

Hope this is helpful!

Was the Ovacue accurate? Did you confirm in the above reading that ovulation really happened on day 14 instead of day 18? Could Ovacue alone be used for NFP, avoiding pregnancy?

 

[fermat]

Was the Ovacue accurate? Did you confirm in the above reading that ovulation really happened on day 14 instead of day 18? Could Ovacue alone be used for NFP, avoiding pregnancy?

Today is day 13, so we’ll need to wait and see . The OvaCue predicts your peak day, and the vaginal sensor is supposed to confirm ovulation. Her cycle is usually 33-35 days, so day 14 seems very early. But then again, baby #5 was a probably an early ovulation.

One of the neat things about NFP in general is that is a partnering of spouses, and I would caution you against relying too heavily on any one method. We use both Creighton and the OvaCue, plus our nightly visual observations to figure out when our non-fertile time is.

My wife is in late 30’s and her family has a history of early menopause. We both want to be in a place where we aren’t panicking about a baby in our 40’s, so we use an over abundance of caution. If we do end up pregnant, then that will be the will of God. In any case, I don’t feel the stress I used to feel. Whether she has a 50 day cycle because of the onset of menopause, or she is pregnant, we will have done what we can and leave the rest in God’s hands.

 

[PTL]

Today is day 13, so we’ll need to wait and see . The OvaCue predicts your peak day, and the vaginal sensor is supposed to confirm ovulation. Her cycle is usually 33-35 days, so day 14 seems very early.

Thanks for the reply. So, is the peak day the pink color, the day of ovulation? What do you mean the vaginal sensor confirms ovulation? Does it tell you "you are about to ovulate? or “you have ovulated” ? Since OvaCue is so expensive, it is prudent to know other people’s experience before investing. Please let us know. Thanks.

 

[fermat]

Thanks for the reply. So, is the peak day the pink color, the day of ovulation?

What do you mean the vaginal sensor confirms ovulation?

What do you mean the vaginal sensor confirms ovulation?

The pink box indicates that ovulation has occurred. Presumably from that point, you could start you three day count.

It is billed to be 99% accurate, but the caveat to that is that you use it properly. As I mentioned before about the day 14 v 18 ovulation, I think I know what is going on. Twice this month my wife brushed her teeth before she took the oral reading and you are supposed to use a first thing in the morning reading. So right off the bat, we’ve violated the normal use of the OvaCue. Secondly, I realized that I overwrote my wife’s day 10 oral reading with a vaginal reading. It is very easy to do the way the device is configured. I pushed the O button instead of the V button. There isn’t a warning to tell you that you are about overwrite an existing reading. Give those two goofs, I am going to assume that we invalidated the data for the month and back to Creighton alone we go. When we add in the fact that my wife isn’t observing her normal peak type mucus yet, I have more evidence that we did something wrong on the OvaCue. If she starts her period at day 28 or less, the OvaCue was probably right. If she starts day 32 or later, Creighton wins. If it’s in-between, who knows.

Since OvaCue is so expensive, it is prudent to know other people’s experience before investing. Please let us know. Thanks.

At this point, I would recommend the OvaCue because it is easy to use and you can upload you data from the device to a website and track everything. If you go to ovagraph.com/ you can set up a free account that let’s you chart. You can also view other peoples readings and see their comments.

Let me know if you have other questions!

 

[1ke]

Have you looked at Marquette Model NFP, which uses Creighton plus a fertility monitor? I suggest you go to the Marquette site and contact them.

 

[fermat]

Have you looked at Marquette Model NFP, which uses Creighton plus a fertility monitor? I suggest you go to the Marquette site and contact them.

We have now!

I told my wife about this post and she said that we had talked about it when we were looking at getting a monitor in the first place. I’m such a guy sometimes.

 

[fermat]

Since I know everyone is just dying to know what happened…

As I said before, the OvaCue gives you a color code for each day and it was showing day 14 as the predicted ovulation day. Turns out that statement is only kind of correct. The blue predicts the best day to have intercourse when TTC, but it is not the ovulation day, per se. There is a strong correlation between the dark blue day and ovulation, but it isn’t supposed to be a flawless predictor.

So day 14 came and went and she was still having fertile mucus and we had no pink box. Then, on day 17, the pink box showed up. It corresponded with peak type mucus, followed the post peak drop in mucus. So I would say that while the oral sensor was off by a bit, the vaginal sensor seemed to work just fine.

We still waited the requisite three days even though the OvaCue showed not fertile the two days after the pink box.

I tried to post a link to our chart, but it didn’t work very well. Here is a smaller version so you can get the idea of the colored boxes:


https://www.ovagraph.com/sites/ovagraph.com/files/tickers/59572/ovagraph-ticker-large.png

 

[KatieS4]

I was looking for discussion of using the OvaCue for NFP, and I came across this old thread. How is your experience with it, a year later? Would you recommend it, and if so do you have any resources you’d recommend for someone who wants to get started with it? I’m currently using symptothermal and the clearblue monitor, but the ovacue sounds better than clearblue in many ways.