Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor (Packaging May Vary)
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List Price: Our Price: $133.99 You Save: $66.00 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor (Packaging May Vary)
Customer Review: Monitor Provides Peace of Mind - Pregnant the first month!
Summary: 5 Stars
UPDATE 6/29/10: I am now pregnant after using the monitor for one month! Without having advance warning as to when I was ovulating, I'm convinced it would have taken us several more months to conceive.
Since timing intercourse for the few days leading up to and during ovulation provides the best chance at conception, I wanted a reliable way to predict ovulation so that my husband and I could relax and enjoy the process of ttc. The monitor has done exactly what I hoped for and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to take the guess work out of when they are ovulating.
This is our first month using the monitor and second month of ttc (our first month of ttc we had no idea when I actually ovulated and definitely didn't time things right). While it is still too early for me to know whether I will conceive this cycle, I wanted to review this product to give others who might be considering it some information about my experiences thus far. If I get pregnant using the monitor, I will provide an update to my review.
First, I am 32 years old and so is my husband. I have a regular 31-day menstrual cycle and neither of us has any diagnosed fertility problems. The instruction manual states that the monitor is extremely accurate in predicting ovulation, so if you are under 35 and use it for 12 cycles and don't become pregnant, or if you are over 35 and use it for 6 cycles without success, you should go to a fertility specialist to see whether you have an undiagnosed fertility issue.
Advice on Using the Monitor
- Read the instructions carefully and make sure you understand how the monitor works. The monitor is pretty easy to use once you understand how to use it and I've had no problems so far. The day after you get your period is day 1 of your new cycle. You can begin using the monitor for the first time any time on days 1-5 of your cycle, but you have to push the "m" button for the first time at the exact time of day that you want to be the midpoint of your testing window. I chose 7am so that I would be able to test anytime during the 6-hour window between 4am and 10am each day. It can be tricky if you will be traveling through multiple time zones while testing, so you should be careful about that.
- Make sure the monitor is actually analyzing your test stick. If you put it in wrong, it doesn't work.
- Purchase extra test sticks early. I bought two boxes of 30 sticks at the same time as the monitor. If you ovulate past day 15 of your cycle you will need to use 20 test sticks each month. I have already used 12 sticks so far.
Cost
I agree that the monitor is expensive. Using this monitor plus test sticks for six months could cost as much as $350, and possibly more if you use it longer (although let's all hope not!). But this cost will seem so worthwhile if it helps to make having a baby possible. Not to mention the fact that having kids is expensive anyway. I am sure that ovulation predictor kits cost less, but I just wanted something that would be really unambiguous to use and understand. Who knows, maybe I didn't need to buy this but I am happy I did.
My Results
I began using the monitor on day 3 of my cycle. After testing, I write down my results for each day on a piece of paper and I also keep track of my cycle on a piece of paper so I will know when to expect my period and can count days, etc. From days 6 through 16 of my cycle, the monitor showed that I had low fertility. I was beginning to think that I might not ovulate or would ovulate so late into my cycle that it would be too late to conceive before my period came (luteal phase defect). Fortunately, that was not the case. On day 17 of my cycle, I received the symbol indicating that my fertility had peaked, meaning that ovulation could occur anytime in the next 24-36 hours. According to the monitor instructions, once the LH surge is detected, the monitor will show two peak days followed by one day of high fertility automatically. The monitor is supposed to show high days before you peak, but there are a few different reasons this might have happened that are explained in the instructions. I am inclined to think that my estrogen increase and LH surge happened on the same day, since I don't think I missed or performed any tests incorrectly.
I feel very good about my purchase and think that the monitor works well to predict ovulation.
Customer Review: It worked for me the very first month!
Summary: 5 Stars
Before investing in this product I read many reviews from customers who have used the monitor both with and without success. In the end I decided it was worth it and I definitely don't regret my decision. Now keep in mind that both my husband and I are young (26) and healthy so it is quite possible we would have easily conceived without the use of this monitor. But I am one of those people who likes to feel in control and know that I am doing everything possible to help myself succeed in any aspect of life. I first want to say that this monitor is very user friendly and easy to understand. On the downside it is expensive and the test strips are not cheap either. Basically with your first cycle of use you turn on the monitor during Day 1-5 of your cycle. You press a button to tell the monitor what day you started your period (Day 1). As long as you turn on the monitor during the first 5 days of your cycle you can easily press the button to set it to Day 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Unfortunately if you do not turn the monitor on during these 5 days then you must wait until your next cycle to use it. Keep in mind that the time you press the button to start your cycle is important. You must turn on the monitor every day between 3 hours before and 3 hours after the time you push the button. So you have a 6 hour window every day. When you turn on the monitor every day it will tell you what day of your cycle you are on and if you need to test your urine that day or not. With the first cycle it will automatically tell you to start testing on Day 6 of your cycle. You will then either test 10-20 days in a row. From my experience and talking with others who have used the monitor typically you will use 20 sticks the first cycle as the monitor gets to know your cycles and it may or may not show that you ovulated that cycle. With the next cycle the day you start testing will depend on what the monitor has learned about your cycles, but normally you will only test for 10 days unless you have a very long cycle. Each day you test the monitor will either show that you are at low fertility with little chance of conceiving(one bar), high fertility when the monitor detects the estrogen surge that occurs several days before you ovulate(2 bars), or peak fertility when the monitor has detected a surge of LH meaning you will ovulate within 24-36 hours(3 bars with an egg). Typically after the first cycle of use you will have anywhere from 2-5 days of high fertility and 2 days of peak fertility. Once the monitor detects the LH surge and you are at peak fertility you will automatically be shown 2 days of peak fertility followed by one day of high fertility. So if money is an issue you can stop testing at the point when you are shown peak fertility. I have been on birth control for almost 10 years so I got off the pill one month before we tried to conceive so I could have one normal cycle. We were very careful that first month not to get pregnant but I did use the monitor my first month off the pill (the instructions recommend waiting several months after going off the pill before using the monitor). The first month I was shown low fertility on Day 6-8 of my cycle, high fertility on Day 9-19, peak fertility on Day 20-21, high fertility on Day 22, and low fertility on Day 23-26. Obviously I used 20 sticks on my first cycle, but it did show that I ovulated. My second cycle using the monitor (first month trying to conceive) the monitor asked me to start testing on Day 9 of my cycle. I was shown low fertility from Day 9-12, high fertility from Day 13-15, peak fertility from Day 16-17, and high fertility on Day 18. We had sex on Day 12, Day 14, and Day 16 of my cycle and 2 weeks later I was pregnant!!! I am currently 8 weeks pregnant and due March 6, 2010! So it worked for me on my very first try! Once again my husband and I are young and healthy and this is our first attempt to become pregnant so we may not have needed the monitor at all. But for my peace of mind I loved having the monitor tell me which days we needed to have sex. It gave me comfort and reduced my stress so for me that was worth the money. If you are the type of person who becomes stressed when thinking about testing and having to put so much effort into conceiving I don't think the monitor is for you. Everyone is different. I think it was worth every penny and I cannot wait to hold my precious baby in a few months!!! Good luck to all the women out there trying to conceive!Customer Review: Worth the money, only product that does what it does...
Summary: 5 Stars
Count me among the moms-to-be who said she'd write a review of this product if it worked. I'm an older mom, and last year I had a miscarriage at 9 weeks and wanted to feel like I had some control over being able to get pregnant again. I am approaching 40 so the possibility of not being able to conceive again was scary, and there is so much of it that's out of your control. You really can't know what is helping or not helping when trying to conceive, BUT there are a few things you can do to actually increase your odds. The most important one of all is timing. If your monthly egg can only be fertilized for 12-24 hours, you don't want to miss that window....
So I bought the monitor. Sure, it seems a little pricey, but compared to having to possibly spend thousands on infertility treatments later, it is a STEAL. Each month of trying really matters a lot, especially when you're getting older. I didn't want to waste any time.
Unlike the ovulation sticks you can buy from other companies, this monitor gives you more days of heads-up when your fertile days are approaching. It doesn't just tell you the day or two when your LH is rising, but also several days before when your estrogen is increasing. No other system does this.
As I recovered from the miscarriage and was closer to being able to start trying again, I started using the monitor to see when my cycles were going to come back to normal (in other words, when my ovulation date was around day 14-15 like it was before I ever got pregnant). It felt good getting so much information about what was going on with my body.
For the first two months I used the monitor, I saw my cycles steadily returning to what they had been before the pregnancy -- which was a great relief. Each month I got a little closer to the way things were before. It was a GREAT feeling to know my body was getting back to normal.
The third month I was using it, my cycle was back to normal -- and that's when I got pregnant again. Now I'm 31 weeks and so far all is well!!
There are some drawbacks: 1) For people with irregular or unusually long or short cycles, I've heard the monitor can be more confusing to use, but I don't know that first-hand so I couldn't tell you all the details. However, most people I've read about seem to have some luck with it even if they are having irregular cycles. Those taking Clomid and that stuff can also use this product. 2) I had trouble figuring out how to insert the sticks at first, and I wasted some. Luckily I was doing a practice month before I was ready to start trying again, so I got the hang of it. I still had to wake up every morning and use my first morning urine, which isn't always easy, but it was definitely a small price to pay for being able to get pregnant naturally rather than having to go through the utter sloughs of despair some people go through.
If you get this project, you should go to BabyCenter or a website like that and get into a Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor Users discussion group - there is at least one of them on there, and all the women will answer your questions and put your mind at ease, as well as trade nitty-gritty details about where they are in their cycles and how the monitor worked for them and what they did and didn't do. It's yet another thing that makes you feel more in control of your fertility, and will help you with all those freak outs over things like 'Why is the monitor showing me this' or 'Is it normal for the egg symbol to be flashing for two days' or whatever. It keeps you calm during what for some people can be a long (but successful in the end!) wait. And it makes you feel as if other people are pulling for you, since your daily readings are not something you're going to share with your pals all day.
Thank God this company figured out what they were doing and created this device. It's SO useful and I think more companies should find ways to make fertility easier like ClearBlue did. Miscarriages and trying to conceive are so heartbreaking for so many people; this puts you back in the driver's seat.
Customer Review: Accurate! My physician recommended this and now I know why!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am in my thirties and had been on birth control pills for about 16 years, so I had never tried to conceive and was worried it could take a long time to get pregnant. Prior to going on birth control, I did have regular periods, but when you first come off the pill, you don't know what your natural cycles will be like, as your body will take a while to adjust itself. I have another medical issue that I had to stop treating if I was going to try conceive, so I didn't have a lot of time to try to get pregnant; it was important for me to do so within 6 months or less if I was ever going to. My ob/gyn strongly recommended using this because if you time intercourse appropriately using it and hit your best days, it shouldn't take more than 6 cycles to conceive unless you or your partner had other existing fertility issues. From the 1st month of use--and literally just off the last birth control pill pack, I got 5 high and 2 peak days-- I ovulated on day 15 according to the monitor. I was skeptical, but I also did temp charting to verify if the monitor was getting my peak days right and it did. I saw the temp rise just after my 2 CB fertility monitor peak LH surge days, so I know it was accurate. Didn't happen for us that month, but during my second month of use (and only second month off the pill) I got pregnant! My peak days on the monitor were a few days later that month, and again my temperature charting verified day of ovulation after the 2 peak days of LH surge on the monitor. Bottom line: it clearly works at identifying impending ovulation and helped me to get pregnant faster than I probably would have on my own as a result! I would definitely use it again if I try to conceive in the future and would not waste my time taking waking temps. That's why I'm giving it 5 stars.
There are negatives, however. The testing window IS annoying, and as other reviews have mentioned, you can't miss it during a day it asks you to take a test or you will screw up your hormone readings that month. On the positive side, it's a 6 hour window, so when I set it at the beginning of the month, I pressed the button at 6am. That way, I could test as early as 3 am and as late as 9am, allowing me to sleep in if I wanted or be able to pee on it earlier if woke up early to go the bathroom. It will ask you to start testing on day 6 of your cycle, and if you get your peak within 10 days, that's all the testing you'll need that month, so at least you don't have to deal with it everyday. If you are traveling far away from your time zone during your testing days, though, the testing window time is going to be problematic for you. You can reset your time at the start of each month, so consider trying to plan for an acceptable window that might allow for you to use it where you are going.
Also, while a lot of people say it's so easy to use, I wouldn't totally agree. Once I figured it out, it WAS easy to use, but it was not intuitive. Definitely take time to read the manual, but then basically you pee on the stick, insert it in the machine, wait till it's done reading over a few minutes, then remove it, then you see your result that day.
Good luck if you are trying to conceive. Despite its lack of flexibility for testing, it really does work accurately and is worth the money.
Customer Review: Amazing product
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been an Amazon customer for years and have yet to write a review until now! Like others, I swore that if I got pregnant while using this monitor that I would write a review. Well, just got a positive blood HCG (benefit of working in an ER) yesterday... exactly 14 days post ovulation according to the monitor:-)
I am a Navy ER nurse and work crazy shifts from nights to days etc, I have very irregular periods lasting anywhere from 30-45 days, and I often would forget to use the monitor when I should have. However, after our 3rd month of trying...IT WORKED!!!!!!
We have a 2 year old at home, so this is our second pregnancy and we had been trying for over a year before I broke down and paid the money for this monitor, and I am so extremely happy now that I did. With our crazy hectic military lives I do not have time to do all the other ovulation testing, this monitor is sooooo simple to use.
People have complained about having to use first morning pee, but I often did not because I was coming off a night shift or just plain forgot. But, I would make sure that I would hold my pee for about 4 hours (if my window aloud that much time) to get my urine a little more concentrated, prior to using a stick. My second month in, I forgot for like 3 days to use the monitor after my period, but I reset the monitor anyway to day 5 of my cycle and started from there. I just mentally made a note that the monitor was going to be 3 days off. Regardless, it still had me test enough that it caught my high days, and my peak day. I also combined sticks from 2 different boxes and did not follow the directions on using 10 from the same box, because I ran out. All three months, regardless of how I screwed up the proper testing technique, the monitor worked like a charm for me. It showed 3-4 high days followed by a peak day right around day 20 for me, and I learned once I saw the peak day to just stop testing and save my sticks.
All 3 months hubby and I baby danced on some but not all high days and then on my peak day. I was really hoping to be one of the lucky ones to get pregnant the first month, but I am just as thrilled to have it happen on the 3rd try:-)
This monitor is the closest thing to seeing a specialist in my opinion. I would have never known when I ovulated and when we should focus trying without it. I HIGHLY recommend it!!!
Now my focus is on having a healthy pregnancy:-)