anyone who's new to the Clearblue fertility monitor?

[iloveberries]

Hello - after a while of TTC with nothing but a chemical pregnancy I have purchased myself a shiny new CBFM in the hope it will make things a bit less stressful. I was an advocate of just having SWI everyother day but in reality that it quite a lot for me and DH and the poor thing works very long hours so not always possible.

I'm starting this thread for anyone else who's started TTC using the CBFM in the hope we can give eachother a little support etc.....

I'm on day 5 today so think i have to start POAS tomorrow......

Anyone out there who wants to join the journey?!!

Can I join the party ladies? AF has just arrived. This was our 7th month ttc%231. So if I buy a CBFM now will I not be able to use it until my next cycle? What happens if you don't start charting with it on day 1?

Hello egg! Nice to see another June-July-August-2012 flier in here :) You can start the monitor on day 1-5 (or is it up to 6?) of your cycle - doesn't have to be the first AF day but you need to set up what number day it is so that the clever thing knows to ask you to POAOS on day 6.

I'm on CD 11 currently, still getting low readings. As a quick straw poll, when did/do you ladies normally get a high/ovulation reading? I know cycles differ a lot - just interested in seeing how much ov varies really :)

Hi All!
loulou I got my first high on day 9 but didn't get a peak until day 18. Some people have highs the whole cycle, no peaks, some straight from low to peak. There doesn't seem to be much pattern.

Not quite joining yet, just mulling over whether to buy one or not (it's in my basket on amazon & I'm about to hit purchase!) Been TTC %232 for 6 months & I feel it's time to try & take a bit more control of things. Can I ask without derailing your thread, how often do you buy the sticks?
TIA

I'm mulling over it too. I've got a docs appt on 15th Dec because I'm not sure I'm ovulating. I've been using some cheapie sticks so that might be the trouble but my cm doesn't seem to be changing anymore either. Is it worth me investing in a CBFM? Or should I just wait to see the docs? Part of me just wants to feel like I'm actively doing something and have a bit of control over the process. Any thoughts? x

JN018 I think in your position I would wait to see the doctor. If you're not ovulating then the CBFM isn't going to help you until you are, 15th Dec isn't too far away (although I know every day seems to drag when you're TTC).

atomant you use either 10 or 20 sticks each cycle. On the first cycle you start using them on day 6 so I suppose if you have had your 2 peaks and high day within the first 10 days then you would just use the 10, if not it will keep asking until you use all 29. The CBFM then starts to 'learn' your cycle so I think will then just ask for the sticks around the time you had highs/peaks last time so hopefully you'd only use 10 sticks a cycle. Does that make sense?!

Thanks choc that's helpful.

Hi all, hope all are well this sunday evening!

Just wanted to share my CBFM experiences, so I had my first high on CD14, then high on CD15, peak CD16 and CD17, high CD18 and back to low CD19 which is today, will be interesting to see if it asks me to test again tomorrow as have been testing since CD6.

After reading that some others have looked at the sticks themselves (this never occurred to me before) I did look at them and noticed 2 lines on the peak days which I think means it has detected the 'surge' for ov'ing?

My question is, my cycles have been quite long, around 37/38 days, the last one was 38 days long. If I ov'd CD16 or CD17 and a luteal phase is generally between 10 and 16 days long ( I think) that would mean my cycle would be 32 days long max - do I test after CD32 or do I wait til after CD38?? I'm wondering if I have a super long luteal phase or if cycles are shortening? Anyone with any experience?

TIA

Hi maisie I think it will keep asking you to test until you've used 10 sticks. As for cycle lengths I believe that your luteal phase is pretty constant, so it would be the length of your cycles that change rather than the length of your luteal phase. Think 12dpo is about the earliest you can test, not sure though!

This is a great thread. My cbfm is in the mail but on cd7 so will wait til next month. Although maybe the month after seeing family will be invading my house and it will be tough hiding it. We will see I'm sure I will be too impatient to wait that long. Thank you for sharing all your experiences.

I had the 3 bars with the 'egg' symbol on days 11 & 12 (I'm presuming that's my peak) and now i'm back to 2 bars (is this my high), I find this so confusing :D (easy I know), but for some reason I expected the 2 bars to then move up to the 3 and not the other way around. Ahh well, at least I now know i'm ovulating. I was testing at the wrong time of the month with the sticks so no wonder they were coming up negative :D

Aha thanks for your replies. Here's hoping for a high/peak reading soon!

I'll be on CD 14 tomorrow so if the reading is still low, then it looks like my LP is shorter than average (think average is 14 days?) as my cycle has settled down to a constant 28 days since I came off the pill five months ago. I don't mind when I get it but i'd quite like a high reading soon just so i'm sure I'm actually oving!

hey all - just popping in to say hi.

CD 09and my first POAS this morning- low reading (which is what i was expecting.)

Looked back at my note on when we had SWI for DS and we did it ONCE, 1 or 2 days before OV so it is possible - this is what i am telling myself.

Keep going ladies :) xx

How's everyone getting on? Peed on my 20th stick this morning, perhaps I have now got over my poas addiction and won't start testing really early this cycle!

haha chocchip! how many DPO are you now?

secret - when do you normally ov?

I am on CD10 and still on lows. I am expecting to get my first high on CD13 based on last month but let's wait and see.

I'm going to go find our stats!

here we go ladies - last listed stats are below.

Looks like mid december is going to be the time for us all!

The plus side of any BFNs which come our way is that they'll release us to get sloshed at christmas!

SecretSparkle (26) TTC #1 TTC 2 cycle, cycle 1 of CBFM AF due 21 Dec
iloveberries: aged 31, DS aged 19months, TTC 4 months, cycle 2 of CBFM. AF due 21st dec (all i want for christmas is a BFP)
Crystaltea36 (27) TTC no.1 TTC 3 cycles, cycle 1 of CBFM AF due 21/22 Nov
pupcake (34) TTC #1, TTC 4 cycles, cycle 1 of CBFM, AF due 24 Nov
MrsHerculePoirot (33), DD aged 23 months, TTC 11 months, cycle 1 of CBFM, AF due 3rd Dec (I think!
Chocchip88 - DS 12 months. TTC for 3 months 1st month on CBFM. AF due 9/10 Dec - possibly
Floordrobe (26) TTC#1 3 cycles, 1st cbfm cycle, AF due Dec 12ish
Maisie55 (32) DS 18mths TTC 3 cycles, cycle 1 of CBFM. AF due 16 Dec
hettyturner (29) DD 18mths TTC 6 cycles, cycle 1 of CBFM AF due anyones guess
Nearlymumofone (34) DS 15 months TTC 3 months awaiting cycle 1 of CBFM
1sttimeBlondie (34) TTC no 1 TTC 4 cycles, cycle 2 of CBFM AF due 12 Dec
Loulou (27) TTC #1, TTC 4 cycles, cycle 1 of CBFM, AF due 13 Dec

secret still plenty of time to get a peak, especially with 30+ day cycles.
6dpo here, la la la, trying to be patient and not think about it. Luckily I'm pretty busy at the moment, we're about to move house, meant to be exchanging next week and of course everyone is dragging their feet so seem to spend most of my day chasing things up!

Have just bought a CDFM (off ebay) and my first POAS day is tomorrow. Was quite excited about starting to take a bit of control (or feeling that way anyway). So, tonight I went to see my friend who is a GP and told her that we're ttc. She said "don't worry about when you're ovulating, just have sex every 2-3 days. It'll take the pressure off, and keep the sperm at good quality". I now feel a bit deflated about my CBFM! Although I guess it will still be good to know when I'm ovulating so we can step it up a notch.

hmmmm........!

Hi everyone. Im also finding this cycle dragging - I started POAS on day 6 or 7, didn't get a high until 14, then just had a high and no peak all the way until 23 so stopped POAS. My sticks were out of date and I ended up using different sticks from two packets (both with different end dates, but all out of date!). My cycles have been pretty consistent with one or two exceptions so am going to order some new sticks (in date!) and start again next cycle and see what happens next time!

Chocchip88 - good luck with the house move!

JNO18 my friend is a GP and she used a CBFM if that makes you feel any better!

Hi all

Nice to see we'll be testing around the same time - exciting times what with xmas and potential BFPS!

Got my first high reading yesterday on CD 15 :) Another today so hoping for a peak tomorrow - fingers crossed.

I guess your GP is right JNO but it's good to have some reassurance that you are oving - and to know when you're oving if you don't have the chance to SWI that reguarly. I'll be relieved when I get that peak eggy symbol!