... Clearblue are one of the leading brands, and since pregnancy is not a decision anyone should take lightly, I was willing to invest a little more into a brand I felt I could trust. I figure it’s a time when you are more than willing to take as much advice as anyone can give you and you could ... Read review
Advantages: more sticks than average in a pack, easy to use, reliable results Disadvantages: more expensive than other methods, especially if it takes a while to conceive
...to give them a shot. Clearblue are one of the leading brands, and since pregnancy is not a decision anyone should take lightly, I was willing to invest a little more into a brand I felt I could trust. I figure it’s a time when you are more than willing to take as much advice as anyone can give you and you could be feeling a little vulnerable, so you are probably more likely to go with something that you feel will be reliable and trustworthy, even ... ...all the sticks had gone! Clearblue comes in at £19.99 for a pack, so it’s not the cheapest option, but it’s a little like paying for convenience food: the hard work has all been done for you, you just have to pay a little more to make your life a little easier. And if you are stressed or worried about getting pregnant, chances are you will be willing to do that.
Getting pregnant is one of those things you just expect to happen to you: it never really struck me that it would be anything other than easy! Of course, it happens much more easily for all the people who aren’t trying, who don’t want to be pregnant in the first place, or who don’t deserve to be: or at least, that’s how it can seem when it isn’t happening for you.
The process of conception itself is so mind-boggling, requiring perfect timing and conditions, that it’s no wonder you can feel like you need a little extra help to speed the process along.
Using an ovulation test is probably the easiest way to start: it will help you narrow down the window in which you should be Going For It! to a 48-hour period, during which you have the maximum chance of conceiving. There’s nothing like a bit of pressure… seriously, you might want to consider the whole pressure angle, as it can be very offputting for the whole process! Jumping on your other half and yelling “Now, NOW, it has to be tonight!” might not have the conclusion you were hoping for. It might even be easier if you agreed in advance not to mention when you think you might be ovulating, which will at least take some pressure away from him, if not from you!
There are several other, cheaper ways to find out when you are ovulating. You could try charting your body temperature every morning throughout your cycle to see when it rises. By the time it has, you’ve missed ovulation for that cycle, but it does mean if you have a regular cycle, you can predict when it will rise next time round. Sounds like a lot of hassle to me, and not all that reliable as your temperature can of course rise for plenty of other reasons! Or you could simply count the days from the first day of your period and aim to conceive between Days 12 and 16, when there is a good chance you will be ovulating. But ovulation can differ between cycles, so although this narrows things down a bit, it isn’t as effective as using ovulation tests. You could invest in a fertility monitor, but these really don’t come cheap – the First Reponse one retails at £99.99.Other options available are to keep track of your cervical mucus secretions or your saliva, and record patterns and changes in these. Eeeuuuuuww!
I decided on a pack of 7 ovulation tests mainly because they were the most readily available and convenient option, sitting in chemists alongside all the pregnancy tests beckoning me to give them a shot. Clearblue are one of the leading brands, and since pregnancy is not a decision anyone should take lightly, I was willing to invest a little more into a brand I felt I could trust. I figure it’s a time when you are more than willing to take as much advice as anyone can give you and you could be feeling a little vulnerable, so you are probably more likely to go with something that you feel will be reliable and trustworthy, even if that means spending more on it.
There are two days in your cycle when you are more likely to get pregnant: those two days are the day before, and in day in which your body releases an egg and it starts to travel down the fallopian tubes. The test works by detecting luteinising hormone in your urine, which ‘surges’ 24-36 hours before you ovulate. Doing the tests is exactly like doing a pregnancy test: you wee on a stick, and wait for a line to appear. The difference is that you have to use a stick every morning until you detect the surge. As soon it appears, off you go! The leaflet enclosed with the test tells you on which day to start using the sticks – the day you begin will depend on the average length of your cycle. If you don’t know how long your cycle normally is, it would be better to count it for a few months until you have a better idea.
If your cycle is irregular, you should use the tests according to the shortest cycle you have had recently (which may mean you need to use more tests than someone with a very regular cycle.) The whole test takes less than five minutes each morning, and it is important that you haven’t a) urinated for 4 hours before you test and b) drunk excessive fluid before testing.
The test itself is very easy to perform and to read. There is a “surge” line and a reference line. As soon as you get a blue line in the surge section that is similar to, or darker than the reference line, you’ve reached your most fertile time. The test is 99% accurate at detecting your surge.
You get 7 sticks in a pack, which for some unlucky women will mean they will have to buy a pack for every cycle. Others will find that 7 sticks will last them for two or more cycles. Both Boots own tests (£17.99) and First Response ovulation tests (£19.99) only offer 5 sticks in a pack: but how frustrating it would be if you hadn’t detected your surge yet and all the sticks had gone! Clearblue comes in at £19.99 for a pack, so it’s not the cheapest option, but it’s a little like paying for convenience food: the hard work has all been done for you, you just have to pay a little more to make your life a little easier. And if you are stressed or worried about getting pregnant, chances are you will be willing to do that.
