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LGBT Parenting
fertility monitors
Has anyone here invested the money for a fertility monitor and did it work for you? I have been charting, but my temps just seem to jump up and down and up down. I temp first thing every morning at the same time, and my temps are just all over the place. I have also tried the OPKs but I don't really understand them either. I'll get a dark line (but not as dark or darker then the control line) first thing in the morning, but then later in the day there is no line at all. And the same thing happens every day. So I'm really considering investing the money to get a monitor. I just want to know if anyone here has used them with success. Thanks!
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Re: fertility monitors
We got a saliva monitor to use instead of the POAS OPK. It's reusable, which was a big plus. I honestly can't say how many times my partner used it, but we ended up just taking a gamble since we were already tracking and had everything in place to start inseminating shortly after we bought it. Good luck!
It can drive a person crazy to have more than one thing saying yes or no to ovulation...but in the end it was worth it to us.
We also got the Clearblue one, and it largely hasn't worked for what we wanted it for. We were trying to time home insems, and wanted to be able to insem once when it read "high" and then again when it read "peak". For DW, it often misses the "high" period, which functionally makes it just a really expensive OPK.
Are you doing home insemination? If it works as intended (and it does for most women), I think it can be very helpful. To me, OPKs/fertility monitors and charting serve two different purposes. OPKs pinpoint O for insemination timing, and charting keeps track of all the information about when you ovulate to predict future cycles and confirms you actually ovulated. You can have a positive OPK and then not actually ovulate.
I might try to troubleshoot your temping and charting though. First, you can try setting an alarm for before you'd usually wake up and take your temp then. Once we did this, DW's charts were MUCH better. She just tossed and turned too much before her usual wakeup time to get good "resting" basal body temps.
Some women are mouth breathers, and that affects their temps. The solution is to try temping vaginally. We haven't done it, but I know a lot of women on the TTGP board do.
If you still can't get the temps to work, I might still use Fertility Friend to predict your cycles. You can override their ovualtion detector and put in your ovulation day yourself. You can just put it in as the day after you get your first positive OPK, and it will be close enough to help plan future cycles.
Good luck! It can be tricky to figure out, but the boards (this one and Trying to Get Pregnant) are a great resource.
AMH 0.5, AFC 5-8, FSH 7ish
IVF #1 - antagonist. Empty follicle syndrome. 1 retrieved, 0 fertilized.
IVF #2 - antagonist. Ovulated early. 3 retrieved, 2 fertilized, 0 blasts
Oh...regarding the OPKs...here is what finally worked for us.
We have the internet cheapies (Wondfo from Amazon) and the clearblue digital ones. DW tests twice a day with internet cheapies - once at 2 p.m. and once at 10 p.m. When she thinks it looks positive, she confirms with the CBE digital. It took a few cycles to get the hang of it, but having that smiley face to say "yes, you're reading it right" from the digital made us much more confident.
We order the CBE digitals from Amazon. They are much cheaper there than at the drugstore. You can get a 20 pack for $36, which for us lasted...six months?
AMH 0.5, AFC 5-8, FSH 7ish
IVF #1 - antagonist. Empty follicle syndrome. 1 retrieved, 0 fertilized.
IVF #2 - antagonist. Ovulated early. 3 retrieved, 2 fertilized, 0 blasts