[BeccaM]

What is yall's take on this? Which do you prefer and why? I found a cheap clearblue easy fertiltiy monitor on Craigslist but Im a little leary about buying a used one but I know some of you got yours off of Ebay and wanted to know how it worked out. I figure by the time I add up all the times I bought OPK's I have spent more than what I would spend on a fertility monitor.

And just so I understand, the fertility monitor you just test once a day with FMU correct?

[tobi4]

Hi Becca! Hows it going with the clomid?
I havent used opk's but I do have the monitor. The first one I bought was defective, it never moved past day 16. The second one that I got when I exchanged the first, is perfect. It matched up with my o pains perfectly. My feeling is, if you get one off of craigs list, it has probably been proven to work properly. (I hope)
The only problem I see with the monitor is for women who surge a couple times before O, which Ive noticed can happen from the posts Ive read. What happens with the monitor is you set it on your first day of AF. It will only start asking you for test sticks on day 6. It will continue asking you for sticks until it detects your rise in estrogen and LH surge. Right before the LH surge it will give you 'high fertility' readings. When the LH surge is detected, it moves from high to peak. The lady at customer service told me that the monitor is then programed to automatically give you one more peak, then high then will return to low. Thats it for the month. It wont ask for another test strip until your next cycle, on cd6.
And yes you are right, once a day, they suggest FMU (you dont have to), but it gives you a six hour window from whenever you set the monitor on the first day. eg: if you set it at 6pm on cd1, you can test anywhere between 3pm and 9pm. If you miss the window, the monitor will not read a stick that day.

[sweetgirl51305]

I love my monitor! I would recommend anyone to get it! Used IS fine to get. As long as it's been reset from the last person there's no problem and if you ever need to know how to reset it, just google how to reset clearblue fertility monitor. I used just opk's our 1st month ttc and didn't get pg. Well, the 1st month we tried using the monitor we got pg. Had the m/c and got pg right after it. Those months using the monitor, we only dtd the 1st peak day and that was it. Let us know if you get one! I would also recommend using fmu, I believe that's what it says to do. I set mine for 5 am (that's when I get up) but sometimes I have to potty around 2-3 am and I'll go ahead and do a test that way it's a good reading. GL!

[Celena]

I found mine on eBay, NIB never used and purchased like 60 test sticks from someone else on eBay as well. No problems... allot of people sell their used CBE monitors on eBay because really no urine comes in contact with it. Once you've dipped your test stick in a cup of urine you replace the cap to the test stick before you instert it into the monitor.

The reason I bought the NIB one was because I lost out on all the other auctions I was bidding on due to work schedule or just not getting to the nitty gritty bidding in the last minutes. So I would have purchased a used one.

You use 1 test stick during the testing period and usually only 10 sticks per cycle, so if you were to buy a box of 30 it would last 3 months/3 cycles. Which you can also find those cheap on eBay as well.

I would take out the batteries before starting the monitor which I believe erases any "memory" it has. The monitor has a memory of sorts and according to when your fertile days are from the previous month determines when it has you test in subsequent ones. If a cycle is very long it may have you test more than just 10 days. It may also have you test less than 10 days depending on when you get your *peak* reading then back to low which I've had happen as well.

I really like my monitor and opk's are ok as well... last cycle and this cycle I'm doing both as well as temp/charting.

[luvmykids623]

I've never used opks so I don't have that experience, but I can tell you that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my monitor! I've had mine since 2005 when we started TTC our first. One thing that I learned this time around is it might be a good idea to take the batteries out of the monitor after you get your sticky BFP. I conceived all 4 of my children on one set of batteries. This time when I turned the monitor on it said the batteries were running low. When I went to change them one of the batteries had corroded one of the contacts. and wouldn't allow it to turn on with the new set of batteries. Luckily DH was able to clean the contact enough for it to work, and I'm hoping it won't affect anything. I would hate to have to buy another monitor, but I sooo would because I love it so much!