Customer Reviews

Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor, (Pack of 1)

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I purchased the Clearblue easy fertility monitor recently. My husband and I were TTC for almost a year "just seeing what happens".. I figured maybe it was time for some additional help!! We used the monitor one month and now I'm expecting our first little bundle of joy!! I know its a little pricey, but so worth it!!!

I bought this monitor after my May 2009 wedding and started using it in September 09. On the second month I got pregnant with my now 13-month son! When we decided to start trying for #2 I just ordered new test sticks and bam! This is our second month of using the monitor and I just got a positive pregnancy test a few days ago! If you are impatient like I was or just don't want it to take 6+ months to conceive I highly recommend the Clearblue monitor! Worth every penny as far as I'm concerned :)

Anyway, We got two of these monitors over several years to use as a natural birth control tool - to avoid pregnancy.

When our first monitor went haywire after about a year, Clear Blue had us send it in, but Clear Blue sent it back with the same defect. They did not fix the problem.

We bought another. When the second one went haywire, Clear Blue Customer service kept asking us why we could not conceive. When we told them it was not to conceive, they gave us a hard time because "it cannot be used as a birth control device" and refused to fix it.

FDA Federal law says one cannot market a fertility monitor as a birth control device, or even as a helpful tool for birth control.

Apparently, big pharma likes it that way - they sell more pills, patches, and plastic insertion devices, etc. They also have the high school sex-ed class teachers worrying about breaking FDA rules, if they teach children how to avoid pregnancy naturally with the help of LH indicators. Apparently, the 1% of big pharma business interests (that influences 100% of our politics) controls our lives once again.

What is even more interesting is the Great Britain branch of "Clear Blue" markets a version of this monitor in the United Kingdom specifically AS a Birth Control device (it's not against the law there) but Clear Blue's U.S. division customer service was using the U.S. Federal Law as an excuse not to fix ours.

Since then, (for the last 7 years) or so, we've been using plain old inexpensive LH urine sticks. We have found these LH urine sticks, like those from "Wondfo" (we get 50 for $10) to be more reliable and easier to use than this fancy schmancy monitor. In fact the cheap urine sticks are better than this hi-tech monitor trash, because you can tell the relative concentration of LH hormone in the blood, by the intensity of the test stick indicator "line."

In fact, in about five years of using several kinds of urine LH sticks, we found the least expensive urine sticks made in Taiwan to be better and more reliable than the ones made in Canada, which cost three times as much. We try to use two sticks for every urine test, each one from a different batch or distributor, just to be on the safe side. We also won't buy mail order, if the weather is in deep freeze.

True, this monitor being reviewed does give you an estrogen surge as well as an LH indicator (the "two bars" for estrogen surge) but the change in the number of days of estrogen surge varies so greatly (from one day to five days, for my wife) that "estrogen surge" is not very reliable for anticipating the LH surge.

In fact, with the inexpensive urine sticks, we found the darkness/depth degree of color of the LH indicator "line" is a better anticipator of a pending fertility than the estrogen surge indicator (two bars) on this overpriced monitor. Of course, the line color of the LH sticks is darkest when the LH surge is greatest, at ovulation.

BTW, as of this writing, it's been about 14 years that we have succesfully avoided an unplanned pregnancy with fertility sticks and previously with the two monitors.

My husband and I had been trying to concieve for 6 months before buying this monitor. I had been tracking my cycle and cervical mucus religiously for a year, and had a pretty good idea of when I was ovulating. I bought this monitor to help me confirm when I was ovulating. Well, the first month we used the monitor, I had 13 high fertility days and no peak fertility days. I started freaking out thinking that I was not ovulating at all. We went to see my doctor. I had hormone testing done and it turned out that I was ovulating just fine, and my hormones were exactly where they were supposed to be. My doctor explained that there was nothing wrong with me, the monitor was just failing to detect my LH surge (which was in deed happening). The second month, same thing. I used the monitor, I had 12 days of high fertility and no peak fertility days. I was more than frustrated with this expensive little gadget. As chance would have it, we ended up getting pregnant the second month of using this monitor, with absolutely no help from this monitor. I am glad that this monitor has worked for so many other women, but it did not work at all for us and it turned out to be a huge waste of money. Not only for the monitor, but also for the test sticks - it says you need 10 test sticks each month - that is a lie - the monitor told me to use 20 sticks each month. Not only were the sticks ridiculously expensive, it was difficult to find stores that carried them in stock. My advice; save your money, this monitor does not work for everyone.

I heard about this product from a friend of mine. She had a few friends say it was helpful when they were trying to conceive. My cycle lengths are irregular, so when my husband and I decided to start trying for our first child I thought if anything it would at least help us find the window. I'll admit I was skeptical when I purchased it, but I was wrong. We conceived the first month of using the monitor, and I'm now almost 19 weeks pregnant. I read a lot of the reviews when I purchased the product, and was interested in particular to how often those that were successful were doing the baby dance during their high and optimal times. Not a lot of people shared, so I told myself if we were successful I'd post and share our dancing frequency. I had 4 high days and 2 optimal days. We only did the baby dance 3 times during this period...my 1st and 3rd high days, and then my first optimal day. So roughly every other day. I would definitely recommend this product. Hope this helps, and good luck!

i am amazed how this product works, it took time, got to know my body better than me for years, i got pregnant in 3 months after buying this, for the dr's they knew nothing of it, i brought it with me, and now other are buying this product, we have been checked to have children, i was missing my days, and this was a big help. Thank you.I do recommend being fully checked a fertility specialist first, and have your husband or other half go on boost. that helped alot, takes time. but it works. My opinion, this is close as you can get, clear blue sticks to check when you ovulate , can be too late. this helps me understand my body. 2 months in family way. baby dust to you all.

I purchased this product on 2/10/2011. However, I only started to use it in January 2011. It worked for the first cycle, but into the 2nd cycle it showed the sign for "faulty product". This was an international purchase and cost a lot. It is difficult to return the product.