Why are FRERs worse than ICs?

[missladybug]

For the ticker, you have to use BBCode instead of HTML.

Your charts look great! This month's looks picture-perfect, though I think your chances would be a little higher if you DTD the day before ovulation. Still, you've got the day before that, and the day of, so you've got a solid chance! Last month's didn't look quite as good, though those extra high temps right before the end-of-cycle drop looked so promising. Do you have a thread of your own going? I would love to stick with you while you TTC, I want to see how this cycle ends for you with such a great chart!

Thank you for the tip on the code! I will fix it tomorrow. I do not have my own thread going as of uet bit I suppose I could fix that tomorrow as well lol

I am just being Debbie Downer right now because I have no real symptoms not associated with AF and I was so bummed last month I've put myself in denial at every chamce as not to be upset if it doesn't turn out. I just simply don't feel pregnant... idk. I would love to include you on my TTC journey though! I got my IUD removed March 7th and have been trying since.

 

[Dill]

Don't be discouraged! I had no symptoms the month I conceived my son. I'd counted myself as out! The month before, I was absolutely convinced I was pregnant because I had every symptom in the book, and I got a BFN. You never know! Just wait to see what your temps do. If your chart goes triphasic, it could be your month!

 

[happycupcake]

The thing is, FRER is supposed to be able to catch a good positive before the other brands, and it just doesn't. My Wondfos, and even my knockoff Wondfos, consistently catch pregnancies sooner than FRERs, and without nasty indents or evap lines. The indents on FRERs are the absolute worst!

But anyway, what I'm getting at, is sure it works fine if you don't test early, but early testing is the whole point of the FRER (vs. just FR).

Completely agree with you! My ICs detect pregnancy and to date over the previous year I have had maybe three FRERs give me the faintest of faint positives which are barely visible when in comparison my ICs have been fairly obvious. They all resulted in early loss, so perhaps I just didn't produce high enough levels to meet FRERs threshold. But having said that I was getting blatantly obvious positives, some really dark previous cycle, and the FRER all I was seeing were the indents.
The indents on these have become stupid.

Blue dye tests are the only things worse than FRERs and Answer tests, imo.

Early testing is definitely stressful. I'm just a POAS addict and get so obsessive over whether or not I might be pregnant that I can't resist it. It's a problem, to the point where I buy my Wondfos in 50-packs and went through several of those packs last time. So I feel you, and I applaud your restraint! Hubby tried to tell me I wasn't allowed to test early anymore because I kept picking up chemical pregnancies that I would have otherwise been blissfully unaware of. But... I can't resist, like I said. I've had 8 pregnancies, but only 1 rainbow baby. I wish I could resist early testing this time, because I'm sure we'll have a few more losses, but I just have to know! I'm so bad.

I love the temping and OPKs, for me, it keeps me from spending the whole month stressing about it. But if it's stressful for you, it sounds like quitting is going to be a good decision. Especially if you're regular! I'm not, especially not in the last year or so. Getting old, maybe.

Fingers crossed for lots of sticky babydust for you!

It's hard to avoid getting into that trap of obsessing over temps, OPKs, HPTs... I'm the same. I test early because of medication, I think I would try to have more restraint otherwise because we have had so many early losses that aside from a couple of them we wouldn't have been aware of had I avoided testing. But I feel I have to because once I see a positive, I can work on reducing my medication.
You say you aren't regular, have you been checked out for hormone levels and stuff?

 

[Laura27]

I've found them to be much better than IC's! I had an absolute squinter of a shadow on an IC on Sunday, and on Monday had a very pink and very dark line! 2 days later the test line was darker than the control

 

[Dill]

I haven't, but I'm not so irregular that it's considered abnormal. Just enough to make it tricky to catch ovulation based on dates alone! And it's a recent thing.