TRYING TO CONCEIVE - TRIED AND TESTED
Ovusense Review by Jo, Mumii Editor
Price : £295
The Background
Ovusense is an electronic medical device which helps a woman determine when she ovulates. Unlike most ovulation predictors on the market, Ovusense uses your core body temperature, taken over night, to predict when you are going to ovulate. This is done via an internal sensor, rather like a rubber tampon which is inserted into your vagina over night.
How does it work?
You simply insert the sensor in to your vagina before bed and leave it there over night. It takes your temperature every five minutes and the data is stored on the sensor. The following morning, you remove the sensor and place it in the data reader and hit the download button. During your first cycle you can expect about a day's notice before you ovulate but in subsequent cycles, Ovusense can predict your full fertile window which starts five days before ovulation.
Using the Ovusense day-to-day - the nitty gritty.
I used Ovusense for just over six months to get a real feel for this product. It was very simple to use and very comfortable to wear - in fact once inserted I had no idea it was there - rather like wearing a tampon. I loved the fact that I could just forget about it and knew that it was working. In the morning, all I had to do was rinse it and then pop it into the reader and press download. This sounds simple but in reality it was at times a little tricky as it has to be in just the ‘right’ position to download successfully. At times it took me a number of attempts before it would accept the sensor. I would like to see Ovusense develop and produce a touch screen version although I realise that getting medical devices to market takes a long time and adding this kind of technology could really up the price of the device.
Once the data has downloaded however, it tracks your temperature on a graph. It’s quite a simple and basic graph but as a Mum, it gives you all the information you need. According to clinical trials, Ovusense has a 99% accuracy which is reassuring. Anyone TTC knows that time is of the essence and if you can pinpoint just when you are ovulating, then at least you can get on and ‘do the deed’ at the right time of the month!
I loved using Ovusense – I was reviewing it (obviously), but as a person who loves to know about her body I found it really insightful. In the beginning we weren’t actually trying for a baby (but didn’t use this as a method of birth control either), but towards the end of the review period we had decided that perhaps another baby might be a good idea. As an older mum, Ovusense gave me the knowledge that I yearned for. I knew when I was ovulating (precisely...and had the historical data to reassure me about my cycle) and therefore knew when I was most likely to fall pregnant. And in fact I did. Month 1. Whether it was down to the gained knowledge from using Ovusense or whether I would have been so lucky had I not been using it, we will never know. It certainly didn’t do any harm!
Conclusion
I can see Ovusense being useful to sooooo many people. Whatever your age and even without fertility problems, Ovusense can give you insider knowledge about your body and your menstrual cycle. If you have got fertility problems, then Ovusense can pinpoint exactly when you ovulate – even if you have a very irregular cycle. It is far more reliable than a blood test in these situations as if your cycle is completely irregular, unless your blood test happens to be on the correct day (rather hit and miss), then blood test results may not give you a true picture. And of course, as in my case, this is ideal for an older mum who really feels that her clock is a-ticking. Ovusense can really focus your ‘efforts’.
The only downside I can really see for this product is the initial outlay. At £295 it’s a pretty hefty outlay. However you have to put this into perspective and if it gets you what you want (a baby) then this is perhaps a small price to pay. Over a 12 month period, it works out around the same cost as the off-the-shelf prediction kits yet has a higher rate of accuracy. In addition to this – and this is the bit I like – Ovusense offer you a full money back guarantee should you not be ovulating. Their theory is that it is these people who may need to go on to have IVF and therefore will need the money to contribute towards this expense.
