cbfm

[Isabella100]

hello, i'm hoping someone can give me some advise on the cbfm...I forgot to use 1st urine of the day and used 2nd instead, the following day I had high fertility for 6 days but not peak. Do you think the high fertility status could have appeared because i didn't use 1st urine of the day on the day before??? I hope this make sense....

Hi Isabella.
Has your reading now gone down to low?
Is this the first month you've used it?

I doubt using 2nd vs 1st would affect your levels for the whole 6 days.

When I started using the CBFM as I had long cycles I got 15 days of high!
I had also had an MMC, so didn't get a peak for the first month and am pretty sure it was because I didn't ovulate as my body was still recovering.

So... if you're not down to a low reading yet, you could still get a peak as it's just getting to know your cycle.

If you're at a low reading this could be because - it missed when you ov'ed, or you may not have ov'ed this month. in this case keep using it and see what happens next month.
Hope this helps

Thanks Clareanna, the reading went down to low fertility on the last day of testing...This is my first cycle of using the cbfm, so hopefully I will see a peak next month...the m button is flashing at the moment, but my cycles are irregular and can be very long, so I'll prob have to wait before I can reset the cbfm and try again. Thanks for your help.

Isabella

If your cycles are very long this is often due to hormonal imbalances. These monitors are unhelpful and in your case is not of any use at all. They do not work properly with irregular cycles. You'd be far better off having blood tests done to see what your hormone levels are like. You certainly need to get LH/FSH checked as a day 2 test.

Common causes of irregular cycles include polycystic ovaries and thyroid imbalance. Both of these should be looked for via blood tests.

Also showing "high fertility" on the kit for six days is not right. It may mean that you are producing too much LH hormone (which is what these kits read). That can be indicative of PCO.

Hang on a sec, let's not get too carried away here with PCO etc.

It states in the instruction booklet that it's not uncommon to get a lot of highs the first month you use it. Apparently it calms down when it knows you better. If it doesn't spot a peak it also says it will keep displaying 'high' for up to 19 days.

It does also give the cycle limits for which it can sensibly operate - they're also in the instruction booklet and it's 21-42 days.

Based on that being your first bash at it, if you have a cycle that is normally between 21-42 days then it would suggest it's behaving pretty much as described in the booklet. :)

Isabella I am not sure if this helps but the CBFM monitor looks for two different hormones. When it detects a surge in oestrogen it triggers a 'high' reading. It then continues to read high until it detects a surge in LH. On this day it displays peak. It's then pre-set to display a second peak day followed by one high day before reverting to low.

The monitor has not detected a surge in LH, but it did detect the oestrogen surge.

There are two reasons why the monitor may not have detected an LH surge. It may be that you haven't had one (some women don't ovulate every single cycle and I understand that it's not necessarily abnormal to miss ovulation every now and again), or the more likely explanation is that you have had a short LH surge lasting just a few hours that the monitor hasn't detected. It doesn't mean it won't pick it up next month.

I agree with owlshoes that the monitor can give a lot of high days in the first cycle whilst it tries to calculate the threshold at which to recognise the LH surge.

There's a poster on another thread (sorry can't remember her name) whose LH surge is short and always happens in the afternoon. She sets the CBFM so she can do her tests then.

Forgetting to use FMU shouldn't have been a problem as it picked up the oestrogen surge anyway (it may have missed it if your urine was too dilute, but it hasn't).

Wishing you better luck and a big LH surge for next cycle

Thanks for all your posts, they have been really helpful.

I had blood tests 2 months ago for LH/FSH and all is normal, thankfully, which is why I thought the machine would be useful.

I will keep my fingers crossed for a peak next month now that I have used the machine once.

Has anyone heard of any posts where someone has actually become pregnant through only highs and no peaks?

Isabella that's excellent news that all your tests were normal. It simply sounds like the monitor missed your LH surge and therefore didn't show a 'peak'. It caught the oestrogen surge, which happens just before the LH surge. If it simply missed your LH surge, then you'd have ovulated and so you could become pregnant with a high reading only.

Good luck x