Ovulation tests are a useful invention of mankind, which allows not only to effectively plan the conception of a child, but also to protect against unwanted pregnancy. If a man is capable of conceiving on any day, then for a woman the fertility period does not last long - only a few days. Tests allow you to determine this day with great accuracy.
What it is?
A woman can get pregnant only during ovulation. For a woman, the fertile period is limited to days - this is how much the egg lives after ovulation. The test system, which is easy to use at home, is designed to determine the onset of this period.
Ovulation is the process of release of a mature oocyte from the follicle, where the maturation of the germ cell took place during the first half of the female cycle after menstruation, into the fallopian tube, where fertilization occurs after the meeting of the egg with living sperm.
Before entering the oviduct, within two weeks the egg matures in the ovary, or rather, after menstruation, several follicles begin to ripen, but in most cases, under a certain hormonal influence, only one remains - dominant or dominant. It is he who bursts on the day of ovulation and releases the oocyte (female reproductive cell), ready for fertilization.
In the vast majority of cases, with a regular menstrual cycle that lasts 28 days, ovulation occurs on day 14. But the female body is not a machine, not a mechanism, and fluctuations for several days are completely physiological and normal. The exit from the follicle takes about an hour, after which, within a day (maximum 36 hours), the egg ready for fertilization is in the wide part of the oviduct waiting for the sperm. If fertilization does not occur, the oocyte dies, is transported through the tube into the uterus and is excreted with the next menstrual bleeding.
Conception is possible if, during the period of oocyte release, live motile spermatozoa are already present in the tube (sexual intercourse occurred 1-3 days before ovulation), or male germ cells will arrive there within 24 hours, while the egg is alive.
There are many ways to determine ovulation. Some use counting (calculating the middle of the cycle), but this method has large errors, since a woman cannot predict the fluctuation in the day of ovulation - much depends on the state of health, well-being, hormonal levels, the presence or absence of stress and other factors.
Others are guided by discharge and sensation. A couple of days before ovulation, the discharge becomes viscous, abundant, transparent, similar to raw chicken egg white. Some people note that they are able to feel ovulation due to minor pain sensations on the right or left side (depending on which side the follicle on the ovaries burst from). But, according to doctors, it is not possible to objectively feel ovulation, and therefore this method does not stand up to criticism.
The temperature method is also used, which is based on on fixing basal temperature, but it can also have significant errors.
It is most difficult for women with certain gynecological problems, because with an irregular menstrual cycle, with different durations of the last few cycles, it is very difficult to calculate the expected day of ovulation.
In a clinic, ovulation can be determined by a fairly accurate method - according to the results of an ultrasound of the ovaries. It is also possible to make a laboratory blood test for the quantitative content of luteinizing hormone (LH hormone) in the blood - just before ovulation, its concentration reaches its peak values. It is clear that at home a woman cannot afford such a diagnosis, and it is rather troublesome to go to the clinic every day in the middle of the cycle for an ultrasound scan or for a blood donation. Therefore, a home test was invented, which helped millions of women get pregnant.
The test helps you quickly and without hassle to understand whether ovulation is imminent, it is happening or has already passed. And in accordance with these data, plan sexual intercourse for conceiving a baby, or, conversely, in order to prevent an unplanned pregnancy.
How it works and how it works
All women are familiar with pregnancy tests, which, thanks to a special zone of sensitivity to chorionic gonadotropic hormone (hCG), make it possible to determine if there is a presence of this substance produced by the chorion of the fetus in the urine of a lady. The ovulation test works similarly, but it does not respond to hCG (this is a pregnancy hormone), but to other hormones that regulate the ovulation process in the female body.
The hypothalamus, which regulates the work of the pituitary gland, is responsible for changing the periods of the female cycle in the body of the fair sex. The hypothalamus, at the right time, gives a clear command to the pituitary gland to produce certain hormones, under the influence of which the processes of maturation and release of the oocyte from the follicle will take place. If the egg does not mature, if it cannot leave the follicle, then conception will not occur in principle.
The pituitary gland releases two hormones into the bloodstream in the first half of the female cycle - FSH (follicle-stimulating, which affects the maturation of the germ cell) and LH (luteinizing, under the influence of which the follicle ruptures). FSH causes the follicle to grow until its size reaches a critical one - up to 2 centimeters in diameter.
While the follicle is gaining size, it stimulates the production of estrogen. Under their influence, the pituitary gland begins to produce LH (luteinizing hormone) at an accelerated pace. This process is called LH ovulatory peak in laboratory technicians and doctors. From the moment when this peak is recorded, until the rupture of the follicle and the release of the female reproductive cell, ready for fertilization, takes from 36 to 48 hours.
The ovulation test has a sensitivity zone (test zone) with an applied substance that is sensitive to luteinizing hormone. Respectively, the higher the concentration of this substance in the body of the fair sex, the faster the sensitive zone will be able to determine this and show the woman whether ovulation is imminent or has already occurred.
Even if you are sure that you know your body, that you have a regular cycle, it will not be superfluous to check the ovulatory period. If the day of ovulation is a secret for you, then using a home test will help determine the period most favorable for conceiving a baby.
Types and characteristics
Ovulation tests are very diverse, and a woman who turns to a pharmacy with a corresponding question may face a problem - which test is better to choose. Of course, you have to find the answer to this question yourself: for someone it is important that the test system is highly sensitive, for someone the question of cost is important and a cheap pharmacy test is needed. We will tell you about the types and give brief characteristics.
Rapid tests in the form of strips (the so-called "strip" tests) - a very popular and, perhaps, the most demanded type of test systems for ovulation. These are paper strips with a reagent applied in the test sensitivity zone, which is colored when determining a high content of luteinizing hormone in urine. The advantages of the test are that it is convenient to use; no special medical knowledge is required in order to understand its results. It is only important to follow the instructions.
Such tests are inexpensive, but it is rather difficult to call them highly accurate, because it all depends on the brightness of the second strip - the brighter it is, the higher the likelihood that ovulation occurs. Misinterpretation is possible.
- Tablet (cassette) test - looks like a plastic case with two miniature windows. The task of the tested woman is to drip a few drops of urine into the first window using a special pipette and wait until the result appears in the other. The two-strip test will respond to the increased quantitative presence of the hormone LH in the fluid secreted by the kidneys.
The advantages of the system are that there is no need to specially collect urine in a clean container, and also that the reliability of the result is slightly higher than that of a regular paper strip strip. The downside is that it costs more than express strips.
- Reusable test - an electronic device that can be used more than once. Equipped with interchangeable urine LH strips, the accuracy is considered quite high. The cost is also not low.
- Inkjet test - a highly sensitive test system that allows you not to collect urine, but simply put the test under the stream while emptying the bladder. After a few minutes, the result appears on the test.
- Digital system Is not even a test in the broad sense of the word, but a small microscope that looks like a tube of lipstick. Allows you to determine the approach of ovulation by saliva and vaginal discharge. Under the influence of estrogen, a woman's saliva in the period immediately before ovulation, when it dries, begins to resemble a fern leaf pattern or a frosty pattern on glass.
Vaginal secretory discharge behaves similarly. The pros are quite high accuracy and reusability. Cons - the high price and a lot of room for the fantasy of a woman who sometimes allows you to see what is not, where it should not be.
In matters of choice, a woman should form her own opinion, based on financial capabilities and the importance of high accuracy of the result.
Testing rules
If you use the test correctly, without violating the instructions for use, you can get results that will be accurate enough to plan for conception. But it is in the correct use that the difficulty lies - many women make mistakes and get unreliable results. To avoid this, you need to know how to do such testing correctly.
The vast majority of single-use tests (the most common) have five test strips inside the box. Why five? Because it is possible to establish the fact of pregnancy by 1-2 stripes after a delay, but guessing the best time to test for ovulation is not so easy, and repeated testing may be required. In addition, repeated carrying out of the procedure helps to increase the accuracy of the diagnostic self-examination.
So, you bought a test and are now wondering when to start doing it. It makes no sense to conduct an independent study immediately after menstruation - we remember that luteinizing hormone appears before ovulation as the follicle grows, and therefore it is worth calculating the testing time, focusing on the duration of your cycle. Gynecologists recommend using the formula O = A-17, where O is the pre-ovulatory period, and A is the duration of the cycle.
Example: a woman's menstrual cycle lasts 28 days. Subtract 17 from 28, we get 11. This means that the first ovulation test makes sense to carry out on the 11th day of the cycle. The countdown begins from the first day of menstruation. Let's say a woman's period began on March 1. This means that she must do the first test on March 11th.
But what if the cycle is irregular? Here the advice of experts in the field of women's health is unambiguous: you need to find the average cycle time, taking as a basis the last six months. Suppose a woman has it that one cycle lasted 28 days, another - 30, the third - 29, the fourth - 32 days, and the fifth and sixth and even 34 days. We add these values and get 187. Divide this number by 6 (months) and get the duration of the average cycle for a particular lady - 31 days. Based on the method and formula described above, she needs to start doing tests on the 14th day from the beginning of the last menstruation (31-17 = 14).
Before using for the first time, you must carefully read the instructions that come with the purchase. If strips are selected, then the urine is collected in a bowl and the test is dipped there to the marked level for 15-20 seconds, then they wait for the result for 5-10 minutes, putting the test on a dry napkin. The inkjet test is simply placed under the stream of urine when urinating.
The next strip is recommended to be used at the same time as the first one. To increase the likelihood of an accurate result, it is important for a woman to remember that there are some rules that it is advisable to adhere to.
- Four hours before the test, you should not drink water, tea, or other liquids (so the concentration of LH in the urine will be more objective).
- You should refrain from urinating for at least two hours prior to testing.
- The time of day matters: Unlike pregnancy tests, in which it is advisable to use urine collected in the morning after waking up, it is better to do ovulation tests not on this morning portion, since it will contain more hormone, which can lead to a false positive result. It is best to test the following urine samples, anytime from 10 am to 8 pm.
Do not forget that the accuracy will be higher if you run the next test at the same time as the previous one. If the first strip was used at 11 am, then the second should be used the next day at 11 am, as well as the third and the next.
Decoding the results
It is not difficult to decipher the results of an ovulation test. A woman can get several results that cannot be interpreted in two ways:
- negative;
- positive.
If in principle there is no second strip in the test area, or it is barely visible, the test should be regarded as negative - there is no luteinizing hormone in the body in the required concentration. This means that the pre-ovulation window has not yet arrived, the testing was carried out ahead of time, or ovulation has already passed (the favorable moment has been missed) - after it the test also shows a result with a "-" sign.
When there are two stripes, the test is considered positive. With this result, a woman should expect ovulation of about within 12-48 hours. Pay attention to the brightness of the second strip - the brighter and more distinct it is, the higher the LH level, respectively, the closer the crucial moment. It usually takes about 24 hours from the moment two distinct bright stripes appear until ovulation. Thus, the result of ovulation testing lasts 1-2 days, then, if you continue testing, the results again become negative.
Sometimes women get a strange result in which there is not a single strip on the test at all - this means that the test system itself was unusable (expired, with violated requirements for storage and transportation conditions). Also, such a result can be if the woman made gross mistakes in the self-diagnosis procedure.
It is important to know: two strips on the ovulation test are a signal that unprotected intercourse in order to conceive a baby should be carried out within three days starting from the current one. But for preventing pregnancy, the method is not very suitable, because the viability of sperm is much higher than that of a female oocyte.
Erroneous results - what are they and why are they happening?
The accuracy of ovulation tests can be debated endlessly. Manufacturers declare it from 97 to 99%. Let's say right away that in fact it is not so high even in expensive electronic tests and reusable mini-microscopes systems. In this regard, women often receive false results, which can be influenced by a variety of factors.
A false positive is getting two strips with virtually no ovulation. This sometimes happens when using highly sensitive test systems that are able to detect even a slight excess in the level of luteinizing hormone. It is not necessary that ovulation in the current cycle will occur at all (in the life of any healthy lady there are anovulatory cycles), but a weak fluctuation in the hormonal background by the test can be perceived as a positive result. But conception does not occur.
A false positive result can be in the anovulatory cycle and the result after testing for the morning urine portion, in which more LH may be present.
A false negative is a result in which the test shows one bar and ovulation occurs. This is possible if the test is performed incorrectly, if the testing rules are violated.
Evaluation of results should be carried out in strict accordance with the instructions for use.
If you get a positive result, remember the insignificant, but still the probability of a false positive result and check the test system data using other diagnostic methods - visit the ultrasound office for an ultrasound scan of the ovaries. If you are measuring basal temperature, then monitor the thermometer.
For whom is testing contraindicated?
Usually, ovulation tests are not recommended for women who are undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment or treatment for infertility with hormonal drugs. Any hormone-based drugs change the natural hormonal background of a woman, and therefore self-diagnosis using home tests becomes uninformative or uninformative.
The influence of "Duphaston" and other means can lead to false, erroneous results. That is why women with polycystic ovary disease, infertility in the IVF protocol when planning conception are recommended more accurate methods - a combination of ultrasound and laboratory blood tests for the concentration of LH and FSH.
Review of popular test systems
To compile this review, we studied the feedback from women and professionals in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. It includes the most popular and demanded systems that you can easily find in pharmacies. Before choosing something for yourself, it is worth learning more about some of them.
Clearblue - digital test system
Manufacturers point to the high accuracy of the test. The device looks pretty solid, it consists of a plastic case and a testing module. A module is inserted into the case, according to the instructions, after which a blinking signal should appear on the case. This means that the system is ready for use.
The urine should be collected in a clean container, after paying attention to the hygiene of the external genital organs. The sampler is immersed in urine for 10-15 seconds, while it is important not to wet the body itself. Then put the system on a flat dry surface and after about 30-40 seconds the test will start blinking, signaling that it is fully functional. In another couple of minutes, the result will be ready. An empty circle means that the time for conception is unfavorable.
A smiling emoticon in the test window is a positive result. The strip is discarded. For the next use, insert a new one.
The cost of the test in pharmacies exceeds 700-800 rubles. According to reviews, the test is interesting precisely because of the absence of the second and the first stripes, women say that he "smiles" at them. There are many good reviews, but there are also reviews about how the test never smiled during the cycle, but the pregnancy still came.
"Frautest"
This is a more economical and budgetary option. Manufacturers of test strips (strip tests of this brand) are quite responsible, and therefore their products have proven themselves for a long time and reliably among women around the world. Any of the Frautest kits contains 5 stripes. The cost of the sets is from 400 to 500 rubles. A nice bonus - two strips of the same brand, but already to determine pregnancy from the first day of the delay of the next menstruation (you won't have to buy separately later pregnancy tests!). And one more nice bonus - 7 small containers for urine (you don't have to look for a convenient suitable container to collect it).
The use is simple and straightforward, even at an intuitive level. The strip is immersed in the urine sample up to the line marked on the strip. After five seconds, take out and place to dry on a dry surface. After 10 minutes the result can be read. It is standard: two stripes are positive, one is negative. Each strip is for one use only.
If for some reason the pharmacy does not have a strip system of this particular manufacturer, without much damage to the result, you can replace it with Eviplan, Ovuplan, Femiplan strips.
According to reviews, the test is quite accurate, but for express strips the cost is somewhat overpriced. Some argue that a test can be wrong more often than a digital one.
Cassette tests
A huge plus of such tests is reusable, and therefore they can be safely chosen by those who have been planning pregnancy for a long time, have tried a lot of one-time tests. This will ultimately save you money. They are done simply - a cassette is placed under the stream of urine and after 5-10 minutes you can read the result, which looks like one or two strips.
The manufacturer does not really matter. Many tablet tests have nearly the same specifications, accuracy, and almost the same user reviews. Therefore, take any - "Frautest", "Evitest", "Femitest" or "Ovuplan".
Electronic saliva ovulation test
This is a very accurate test, but it is considered the most expensive, and therefore less popular, and therefore there are not as many real user reviews about it as we would like to add a clear idea of the pros and cons. Available for purchase are such brands as Femotest, Fertile Focus mini-microscope, Eva-testD, OVU-test, MaybeMom and some other brands.
It is used simply: a little saliva is applied to the glass of the microscope, they wait for it to dry and carefully examine it through the microscope. If the drawing resembles fern leaves, ovulation is already very close. Reusable device, cost from 2 to 4 thousand rubles.
The results do not depend on the level of LH in the body - the test "works" on changes in saliva under the influence of estrogen, and therefore is suitable for women who have problems with hormonal levels. Many models allow examining not only saliva, but also vaginal secretions.
Common questions
Due to the fact that the use of ovulation tests entered the life of women not so long ago, this raises a lot of questions, and not all of them can be answered clearly by the instructions for use attached to the purchase. Here are the most common ones.
How to assess the likelihood of getting pregnant if there are two strips on the test?
Many ladies mistakenly think that an ovulation test is useless because it never helped them get pregnant. The test is intended to determine fertile days, but it does not in any way assess the individual's probability of conception. If you see two stripes, there is no guarantee that the pregnancy will occur. It depends on the health of the woman and her partner, on a host of other factors that by themselves have nothing to do with ovulation.
Thus, a test with a positive result shows that conception is theoretically possible during this period. And nothing more. The average probability of pregnancy during ovulation in women is from 7 to 32%, depending on age.
Given the inaccuracies of the test systems, one should not ignore the fact that pregnancy can occur with a negative ovulation test.
Can oral contraceptive use affect results?
The question is very relevant for those who decided to conceive a child after a period of contraception with the help of hormonal pills. The contraceptive intake was completed in the previous cycle. And here the question arises in full growth, whether the ovulation test in this cycle can determine the responsible and favorable moment for conception. Yes, he can. But on condition that ovulation takes place at all.
The fact is that after the abolition of OK, a woman has an anovulatory period, at which a cycle is established. This is especially true for women who have been taking contraceptive pills for a long time. That is why it is recommended to wait a couple of months between the end of contraception and the beginning of pregnancy planning. Usually, two cycles are enough for ovulation to recover.
If the tests are positive every month, and the pregnancy does not occur, what is wrong?
The presence of positive self-test results for ovulation indicates that ovulation is occurring. Why conception does not occur is another question. Either the couple has sex at the wrong time, or the case is in the infertility of one of the partners or both at once. In any case, after a year of unsuccessful attempts, you should contact a gynecologist - a woman and an urologist-andrologist - a man to answer this question.
For women over 35 years old, the period of passive waiting in the pregnancy planning mode should not exceed six months, after which you should consult a doctor for an infertility test.
An infertile woman can also ovulate, because the reasons for the absence of pregnancy do not always lie in the work of the ovaries and hormonal background.
All five strips are negative - what to do next?
If none of the five strips show a positive result, and the woman usually has a fairly regular menstrual cycle, then you should open the next pack of strips and continue testing for another 2-3 days.
Perhaps ovulation is delayed due to some internal disruptions (the woman has had a cold, acute respiratory viral infection, is tired, is under stress, there was an air flight, a change in time and climatic zones). If subsequent attempts do not show a positive result, the cycle is most likely anovulatory (within reasonable limits - 2-3 times a year - this is normal).
Do I have to use all the stripes from the purchased set?
If there are five strips in a package, this does not mean that a woman has to do all five tests. This may not be necessary. If 1-2 tests showed bright stripes, in this case there is no need to use the rest, they can be set aside in a dry and cool place to use later if necessary.
For an overview of ovulation tests, see the following video.
