Ovulation tests

After 6 months of trying, I decided to buy ovulation tests and I was puzzled by the number of them in the shops. They are all different, claim different thing and are a real mine field.

The ovulation tests measure the level of LH in your urine.

The luteinizing hormone is always present in your urine and increases 24-48 hours prior to ovulation. The LH surge triggers ovulation, which is the release of an egg from one of your ovaries. Ovulation is the most fertile time of your cycle*.

Some tests will claim 99% accuracy. This doesn't mean that you are 99% likely to get pregnant! It doesn't mean that they are 99% accurate at detecting ovulation either! Don't be fooled!
The way the test is conducted to get such result is that they select healthy young women, then do a blood test, select only those who have a strong LH signal in their blood. And get those to test the test. In which case 99% of those had the test detect the LH surge in the urine the same day as the blood test showed the LH surge.

So as a summary, the numbers on the box mean very little for women like you and I trying to get pregnant!

You can buy the Ovulation Tests from big brand from ClearBlue and First Response, but they do the same job as the cheaper ones. You can also find very cheap equivalent online which are those that are used in labs.

The only useful information to look out for is the sensitivity - that means the level of hormone that they detect. You can buy 3 different levels: either 20 mIU, 30mIU or 40 mIU.

If you have regular cycles and no known problems then, the Normal 30 mIU sensitivity are the ones you should have and the ones we recommend. We have given more detailed information further down the page about why you may need different sensitivity ovulation tests and how to discover if you do**.

I used the 30mIU.
But I only used them for 3 cycles as they didn't work for me.

The other choice you have is to get digital tests, or analogue test. The digital one have a mini computer inside with a camera, and they tell you what the result is instead of you having to analyse it.

This video clearly show that not all Ovulation tests ( or OPK) are giving results as easy to read from one to the other...if you feel unsure, the digital ones are best, and will give you more of a peace of mind. But they are also more expensive.

*Reference:http://americanpregnancy.org
**Reference: http://www.homehealth-uk.com