I just thought I'd share my experiences of using this test - as someone who never used an OPK before this month I was sceptical but it worked first time and I got my BFP this morning!
We've been trying for baby # 2 for 6 cycles with no luck. This was especially frustrating given I'd got pregnant straight away with our first. I was worried about my age and wanted some reassurance that I was ovulating, but I'd been put off OPKs this one because of the price and others because it sounded so open to interpretation to have to decide whether the line was dark enough or not to constitute a positive test.
But after 6 months with no luck I decided to splash out on the clear blue test thinking was the price really so high to pay to maximise the chance of a baby? I was initially going to buy the standard clear blue ovulation test, but then saw the dual hormone one was on sale for only a couple of pounds extra as it claimed to identify double the number of fertile days I thought it was worth the extra cost.
I started testing on day 9 of my cycle and got the low fertility result for three days, then on day four I got the flashing high fertility result. I got this for three days in total and then on day 7 of testing I got the peak fertility result. It was almost as exciting as getting a positive pregnancy test!!
We made sure we DTD on all of the 5 fertile days the test identified. Two weeks after I got my peak fertility result I did a HPT and it was positive!! I am so pleased with this ovulation kit.
A few points worth noting:
It says if your cycle varies in length to use your last cycle to guide you when deciding which day to start testing. My cycle usually varies between 27 and 30 days, but last time was 35 days. So if I'd followed the advice in the pack I wouldn't have started testing until much later and I would have possibly missed my fertile days. My advice is to start testing based on your average cycle, especially if your last cycle was out of the ordinary like mine. You can always buy another pack with extra test strips in if you end up testing too early.
When I researched this test online I saw a few common criticisms of it:
Firstly that this test always gives a low fertility result the first time you test. However, when you think about it this is because it's such an intelligent test. Hormone levels vary from woman to woman, and the first test is about seeing what your own personal normal levels are. This is so the test knows what a peak is for you personally.
I've also seen a few people criticise it because they got more than two days of the flashing high fertility result, when the pack advises you get two days of this followed by two days of peak fertility. However, the leaflet in the pack is very clear that many women will get more than two days of high fertility results, with 66% getting between 0 and 4 days of high fertility before getting their peak fertility result. It is also clear that about 8% of women will not get a peak fertility result after getting high fertility results for a week or more. So I think the pack is very clear that the results will vary from woman to woman.
I've also seen criticism that you can't carry on testing after getting the peak fertility result. But really, what would be the point? The test is clear that it is for detecting the hormone surge that indicates ovulation is likely to be imminent it does not claim to be able to confirm that ovulation has actually taken place.
The only criticism I can think of for this test is that you can't buy replacement strips for future months and carry on using the same holder. This would make further months use much cheaper, but I guess that's why they do it! Thankfully it worked so well for me that I don't need to worry about this!
We've been trying for baby # 2 for 6 cycles with no luck. This was especially frustrating given I'd got pregnant straight away with our first. I was worried about my age and wanted some reassurance that I was ovulating, but I'd been put off OPKs this one because of the price and others because it sounded so open to interpretation to have to decide whether the line was dark enough or not to constitute a positive test.
But after 6 months with no luck I decided to splash out on the clear blue test thinking was the price really so high to pay to maximise the chance of a baby? I was initially going to buy the standard clear blue ovulation test, but then saw the dual hormone one was on sale for only a couple of pounds extra as it claimed to identify double the number of fertile days I thought it was worth the extra cost.
I started testing on day 9 of my cycle and got the low fertility result for three days, then on day four I got the flashing high fertility result. I got this for three days in total and then on day 7 of testing I got the peak fertility result. It was almost as exciting as getting a positive pregnancy test!!
We made sure we DTD on all of the 5 fertile days the test identified. Two weeks after I got my peak fertility result I did a HPT and it was positive!! I am so pleased with this ovulation kit.
A few points worth noting:
It says if your cycle varies in length to use your last cycle to guide you when deciding which day to start testing. My cycle usually varies between 27 and 30 days, but last time was 35 days. So if I'd followed the advice in the pack I wouldn't have started testing until much later and I would have possibly missed my fertile days. My advice is to start testing based on your average cycle, especially if your last cycle was out of the ordinary like mine. You can always buy another pack with extra test strips in if you end up testing too early.
When I researched this test online I saw a few common criticisms of it:
Firstly that this test always gives a low fertility result the first time you test. However, when you think about it this is because it's such an intelligent test. Hormone levels vary from woman to woman, and the first test is about seeing what your own personal normal levels are. This is so the test knows what a peak is for you personally.
I've also seen a few people criticise it because they got more than two days of the flashing high fertility result, when the pack advises you get two days of this followed by two days of peak fertility. However, the leaflet in the pack is very clear that many women will get more than two days of high fertility results, with 66% getting between 0 and 4 days of high fertility before getting their peak fertility result. It is also clear that about 8% of women will not get a peak fertility result after getting high fertility results for a week or more. So I think the pack is very clear that the results will vary from woman to woman.
I've also seen criticism that you can't carry on testing after getting the peak fertility result. But really, what would be the point? The test is clear that it is for detecting the hormone surge that indicates ovulation is likely to be imminent it does not claim to be able to confirm that ovulation has actually taken place.
The only criticism I can think of for this test is that you can't buy replacement strips for future months and carry on using the same holder. This would make further months use much cheaper, but I guess that's why they do it! Thankfully it worked so well for me that I don't need to worry about this!
