An ovulation predictor kit works by monitoring the level of luteinizing hormone, or LH, in a woman’s body. At the beginning of the menstrual cycle the female body begins new production of follicle stimulating hormone.FSH causes the growth of a new follicle on the ovary which nurtures the egg to maturity.

The LH surge is quite a dramatic one, but it is also very brief. In order to detect it properly women will need to test on a regular basis and at certain times of the day. Most ovulation predictor kits come with a chart and an explanation of the methods used to calculate when this should be done to be most effective as well as a number of tests or test strips so testing can be performed on a regular basis.

An ovulation predictor kit looks and works very much like a home pregnancy test. In the case of most brands there are two bands, a test band and a control band. A positive result is usually indicated by the appearance of two clear lines, with the test band being darker in color than the control band. Women of all ages can experience difficulties when trying to conceive, but many often have far better results monitoring their fertility with ovulation predictor kits than they do by daily temperature charting, as the test anticipates ovulation rather than simply confirm it has already occurred, which what fluctuations in temperature can be used to track.

Ovulation Predictor Kits

Possibly the most common myth about ovulation prediction is that a woman ovulates on day #14 of her cycle. First, let’s explain what we mean by “day #14.” The first day of a woman’s menstruation – when she begins true bleeding – is considered “day #1.” Some authors and articles proclaim that all a woman has to do is count 14 days from the first day of her period and that is when she will be ovulating.

However, this is dangerous misinformation! It is based on the mathematically incorrect assumption that most women have a 28-day cycle. This is simply not true. As many women know, some cycles can be as short as 18 days or as long as 50+ days. The error arises from the mistaken belief that because the number of days in the human cycle averages out to be 28 days, that most women have a menstrual cycle that lasts 28 days.

For comparison, let’s assume that you know 10 people who each have one pet and 10 other people who each have three pets. This averages out to two pets per person. But of those 20 people, actually NONE of them have two pets! This is not to say that there are no women who have cycles that are 28 days long – but many women do not have 28-day cycles.

Most ovulation predictor kits tell a woman to begin testing on day 11 of her cycle (counting forward from the first day of menstruation). Many women following these instructions will ovulate well before or after Day 11, and miss their fertile phase altogether – literally “flushing” their money down the toilet!

One simple solution to the “how do I know when I’m ovulating” problem is to track and view one’s saliva. Saliva fertility test kits are available for this purpose. The best are licensed medical devices accountable to regulatory bodies such as Health Canada or the United States Food and Drug Administration.  These kits are durable and reusable, and are often more cost-effective than many disposable urine-examination kits because they require no refills or replacement test strips. Also, many women prefer to track saliva than urine for hygienic or aesthetic reasons. The saliva tracking method for calculating fertility is approximately 96% accurate.

Tracking salivaworks because, when a woman enters her fertile phase, high estrogen levels cause her mucus membranes to secrete more bio-salts in cervical fluid, nasal fluid, tears and saliva. These fluids, when dried and viewed through a microscope, appear crystallized or “ferned” during a woman’s fertile phase.

Colleen Biggs, president and founder of the ovulation prediction kit manufacturer OvumOptics, Inc., struggled for years to obtain accurate, reliable information about even basic fertility issues.  Her personal experience with ovulation prediction myths was part of what led her to develop the Ovu-Trac® Ovulation Predictor Kit in 1996.  Her stated goal was to provide women with a product that would include not only a valuable tool for identifying fertility, but also supportive literature to help them to both understand and re-connect with their bodies.