Fertility Monitors For Solving Infertility Like Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
More and more I am seeing advertisements online for various types of fertility monitors and in particular, promoting their use for resolving infertility issues.
I regularly see brands selling different types of monitors from mucus analyzing tools through to urine strips that detect hormone levels through to wearables that read your temperature and tell you what your ovulation is doing.
The current trend is to say that fertility monitors can help you discover the cause of your infertility, with the standard example being some happy customer saying that “I had no idea that I was NOT ovulating!” then holding up a pregnancy test like that magically fixed everything.
It certainly feels like these monitors are implying that they are a solution when really they are just a diagnostic tool. The thing is, once you realize where the breakdown in your cycle is you still need to find out why you have that problem.
For example, if someone (or something, I guess) tells you that you’re anovulatory (you are not ovulating at all)... what do you do next?
If someone or something tells you that your luteal phase is too short, and progesterone is too low, what do you do about it?
It’s important to remember that fertility monitors are not a one stop shop for infertility problem solving, they’re one tool that helps you narrow in on the problem area. Maybe.
Fertility Monitors for Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
Completely useless… you need to have a cycle in order for a fertility monitor to work. We have had some happy clients use urine strip monitors like Inito to track their hormone behavior, but for most women, these monitors just cause confusion. Reason being is that these monitors are designed to read where you’re at in your cycle so if you’re not cycling at all, they just go haywire and try to put you in a category. They regularly tell clients they are about to ovulate or have ovulated when they really haven’t - at least in our experience.
Ashley and I have personally gotten on a phone call with Inito to try to understand why we would get these incorrect readings (because we were comparing the Initio readings to temperature tracking and blood work, so they were definitely WAY off) and we never truly could get to the bottom of it.
With that in mind, let’s talk about how they could be used:
Identifying the Problem
As I’ve already mentioned, these are tools to help you narrow in on why you’re experiencing infertility in an existing menstrual cycle. In the case of a completely missing period they’re not that helpful. Besides… you kind of know the problem already, your period is missing.
When you are cycling, you can figure out, is it my follicular phase that is too long? Am I ovulating at all? Is my luteal phase way too short for pregnancy? Once you know the area that the breakdown is happening, you can take actions.
Keeping Tabs on Overall Hormonal Health
Personally, I use monitors now (I use the TempDrop) to identify ovulation and track the length of each part of my cycle. That’s about it. It helps me keep a pulse on whether or not my cycle is tracking well or falling apart so that I can take action if I need to.
Timing for Conception
If you’re trying to get pregnant and you have an existing cycle, it can be helpful to track your cycle to help determine your fertile window and when to have sex so that you can get pregnant.
I only recommend this if you’ve been trying for a couple of months and you’re not falling pregnant. If you are only JUST about to start trying, relax, watch for cervical mucus and have sex when you see it. If you don’t get pregnant doing it the old fashioned way, then you may want to track for the reasons mentioned in the points I’ve already addressed above.
Avoiding Conception
Here’s a biggie. Many tools use the Fertility Awareness Method as a base for their technology. This method is a science back method for family planning whether you’re trying to conceive or avoid pregnancy.
Now remember, for legal reasons almost NO monitor will tell you that you can use them to avoid conception… but secretly they all know that if you use them correctly you can. Pay attention to all the fun verbiage they use in their apps and packaging to avoid saying that you can use many of these tools to avoid conception.
The wearables such as TempDrop and the Femometer ring to name just a couple of our favorites, will only help you track and identify:
How long your bleed is
How long your follicular phase is
Whether or not you ovulated
How long your luteal phase is
They won’t help you identify if your oral temperatures are in the ideal range for hormonal health (only oral temperatures can do this, so if the tool is taking a temperature from anywhere other than your mouth it can’t help you here)
But this can be all you need to help be aware of where you’re at in your cycle and avoid getting pregnant.
In Conclusion
The claims that many monitors are making that they can help you fall pregnant when you’re dealing with infertility is not very likely. I am sure that if issues in the basic parameters of your cycle are popping up they will give you some basic tips and tell you to visit your doctor, but that’s about it.
As a Fertility Awareness Method Practitioner myself, I am a HUGE believer in using the method as a tool for recovery and identifying fertility issues but certainly, the changes and improvements come from working with a professional to help you make the necessary changes.
Ok so I’m not ready for a monitor then… what should I do?
A good old fashioned regular thermometer will do the trick. Here is an article I’ve written in the past about using the manual fertility awareness method for HA recovery and beyond. It will help you get started!
