Is the Clearblue monitor worth it? I am sharing my Clearblue fertility monitor experience from three cycles including fertility display and instructions.
Many couples wishing to have children would like a cycle computer to determine the fertile days of the cycle in order to get pregnant faster. Most of these devices have their own algorithm based on the temperature method or Symptothermal method. But the Clearblue Fertility Monitor is very different. It is based on measuring hormones in the urine. By evaluating special urine test sticks, the Clearblue Monitor can determine the fertile days and ovulation.
How good is the Clearblue Fertility Monitor really?
It is known from studies that the Symptomal method is currently the best method for determining productive days. But is the Clearblue Fertility Monitor as good as the Symptomal method? I tested the Clearblue Fertility Monitor for you for a total of three cycles. In this test, I determined the fertile days and ovulation using both the Symptothermal method and the Clearblue Monitor.
Comparison of the ovulation indicator with the Symptothermal Method
By comparing it with the Symptothermal method, you can see exactly how well the Clearblue Monitor can determine ovulation and fertile days. In this article I share my personal Clearblue fertility monitor experience with you and give you detailed instructions on how to use the monitor.
Clearblue Fertility Monitor – How to determine your fertile days
During the three months of use, I noticed that some things could be improved, which I would like to go into in more detail in a moment. Overall, however, I am very positively surprised by the Clearblue Fertility Monitor and have found very good agreement with my Symptothermal Method recordings in all three test cycles with regard to the ovulation phase.
Determine fertile days with the Clearblue Monitor
The Clearblue Fertility Monitor can differentiate between low, normal and high fertility. The grading of fertility is determined using urine test sticks. The test sticks are requested by the Clearblue cycle computer on certain days and then the fertility monitor shows the respective fertility level on the touchscreen screen. The highest level of fertility is also marked with a smiley. This also corresponds to the phase just before and during ovulation, when the probability of getting pregnant is at its highest if you have unprotected intercourse on these days.
Ovulation indicator 90% reliable in study
A study with 150 cycles of around 53 women looked at how well the Clearblue Fertility Monitor can limit ovulation. It turned out that ovulation can be reliably determined in 90% of the cycles. I am also very curious whether the Clearblue Fertility Monitor can also reliably determine ovulation in my three test cycles.
Symptothermal method can limit ovulation to 91% up to 4 days
With the Symptothermal method, the basal body temperature and the cervical mucus are monitored during the cycle and entered in an app or an analog cycle sheet. From the temperature curve and the course of the mucus, you can then reliably determine the fertile days and ovulation. According to studies, 91% of ovulation can be limited to within four days with the Symptothermal method. Of course, I also performed this ovulation narrowing down in all three Clearblue Fertility Monitor test cycles, so you could see the quality of the ovulation readout directly.
All-in-one cycle computer – no app required
What I find best about the Clearblue cycle computer is that it is NOT combined with an app. You don’t need internet access or a smartphone to use the fertility monitor immediately. However, buying the Clearblue test sticks later is very expensive. You need about 10 test strips per cycle and when you run out you have to buy them again. You can read about how exactly the test sticks are inserted into the computer and much more in the package leaflet.
Documentation & presentation of the ovulation signs
To switch on the Clearblue fertility monitor, the protective cap must be flipped up and then the touchscreen becomes visible. Then you press the power button. The start screen now shows which cycle day you are on and how high your fertility status is. The date and time are also at the top.
Calendar Menu for cycle documentation
In the calendar menu you can view your cycle documentation. I don’t find the presentation very intuitive. But at least the most important thing is clearly recognizable. On the Clearblue Monitor, this is the smiley 😉 for evaluating the fertility level based on the test results and the date. However, the color representations, the menstruation and the colored corners are very difficult to understand intuitively.
Presentation still has a lot of room for improvement
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a big fan of intuitive controls. In my opinion, the display of ovulation signs still has a lot of potential to become more user-friendly. Without the legend in the instructions for use, I would not have understood what the symbols mean. In my opinion, this could be greatly improved.
Set up cycle and first day of bleeding
I also found a deficiency with the Clearblue Fertility Monitor, which I also found with many other cycle computers such as e.g. B. disturbs the daysy. I explain it below.
Cycle start only possible in the first 4 days
There is only the possibility to submit the new cycle in the Clearblue Fertility Monitor within the first four days of the cycle. In concrete terms, this means that if you missed it by a few days or more, you can no longer enter your period afterwards. This is really super annoying that this doesn’t work.
It is particularly hard on women who ovulate late
I always ovulate relatively late. It usually takes place on the 15th day of the cycle at the earliest, but sometimes not until the 25th day. For this reason, I like to enter my period later, because for me the first days of the cycle are not so relevant for determining ovulation. With the Clearblue, I missed the time window at the end of my test out of habit and so I couldn’t complete the last cycle properly, for example, because I didn’t enter the first bleeding day of the fourth cycle.
Period cannot be corrected afterwards
It therefore does not appear in the cycle overview, or it would appear incorrectly if I were forced to enter the start of my cycle incorrectly afterwards. This is a major shortcoming that needs to be improved. It is also very annoying if you make a typo when entering the cycle start, you can no longer change the period afterwards.
Limited cycle length of 21 to 42 days
The Clearblue Fertility Monitor only works for women who have a cycle length between 21 and 42 days. Especially after the pill, 50% of women experience longer cycles as a result of post-pill amenorrhea. The Clearblue Fertility Monitor cannot be used during the menopause, while breastfeeding or in the case of a disease such as PCOS, where long menstrual cycles are more common. Fortunately, I have a completely normal cycle, which is always between 21 and 42 days. Because of this, this cycle length limitation was not a problem for me. My shortest cycle so far has been 25 days and my longest has been 35 days.
My Clearblue Fertility Monitor experience
Now we come to my actual review, where I share my experience on the first three cycles with the Clearblue Fertility Monitor.
First cycle with the Clearblue monitor
My Clearblue fertility computer review starts on November 25, 2021. The cycle lasted exactly 28 days. I was able to evaluate my basal body temperature and cervical mucus well, although my temperature curve looked a bit jagged.
Good match of ovulation indicator
According to the Symptothermal method and my temperature rise, my ovulation phase was from the 15th to the 18th day of the cycle. In the graphic, I have marked this four-day period in green. The Clearblue Fertility Monitor showed me high fertility from day 9-17. The maximum and highest fertility with Smiley was on days 15 and 16. This is in very good agreement with my Symptothermal Method recording and evaluation. The smileys are exactly on the two days before the temperature rise, which is optimal for the ovulation indicator. All days with category S+ cervical mucus were also within the pink marked window, which means high fertility according to the device.
Second cycle with the Clearblue cycle computer
The second cycle that I tested with the computer started on December 23, 2021. I was also able to evaluate this with the Symptothermal method, although this time I had to apply an exception rule to evaluate the temperature curve.
Ovulation phase, the same as in the 1st cycle
The cycle lasted 29 days this time, one day longer than in the first cycle. However, the ovulation phase happened to be on the 15th-18th day, just like in the previous cycle. That’s because my first higher reading in both cycles was on day 17. Here, too, the computer shows me a high fertility phase, this time from the 10th to the 19th day. And the two smiley days were days 17 and 18 this time. There was a small deviation from the Symptothermal method by one cycle day.
Is the Clearblue Advanced Monitor ovulation indicator late?
That was rather unusual this time compared to the Symptothermal method recording. If you look closely at the green area before the ovulation phase, you can see that this time the smileys are at the end of the phase and not at the beginning. It could be that the ad came a little too late to still have a very high chance of getting pregnant with traffic on those smiley days. But overall, the best cervical mucus quality, S+, is again in the high fertility range of the computer. This is all very positive.
Third cycle with Clearblue Monitor
The third cycle starts on January 21, 2022 and lasted 31 days this time. The temperature curve this time was extremely smooth compared to the previous two cycles. The fertile days and ovulation were therefore very easy to determine with the Symptothermal method. The Clearblue Monitor also showed me a very clear progression of the fertile days in the cycle in this cycle. The high fertility indicator this time was only for six days from the 15th to the 20th day of the cycle.
Perfect match between the Symptothermal method and the fertility monitor
The ovulation time (smileys) was on day 18 and 19 according to the Clearblue monitor. I think the smileys were at the perfect time because it was the first two days of the ovulation phase calculated with the Symptothermal method. So the cycle was really super optimal. At this point, I would like to emphasize that my ovulation was relatively late in this cycle and the Clearblue fertility monitor still showed the fertility display optimally. This shows that the clearblue cycle computer really displays an individual fertility display. That made me very happy and impressed.
Conclusion
The Symptothermal method can pinpoint ovulation to within four days. The Clearblue Fertility Monitor, on the other hand, shows peak fertility as a smiley face. These smiley days must therefore be within the four-day window of the Symptothermal method in order to be able to say that ovulation has been correctly determined.
Very good limitation of ovulation possible
The Clearblue Fertility Monitor found my ovulation in all three cycles as Smiley Day was within the said four day window. Thus, the Clearblue computer has a very good indication of the ovulation period. In my opinion, the first and the third test cycle of mine had an optimal display. It was a little off mid cycle, but the smileys were still in the green of the Symptothermal Method ovulation window. Thus, the main statement of the study, that the Clearblue Fertility Monitor can limit ovulation up to 90%, seems to be correct.
Average display of the highly fertile days
As far as the highly fertile days are concerned, there are some deviations from the Symptothermal method. But all in all, it provides a good orientation as to when the right time for the optimal time for sex is to get pregnant. I can therefore highly recommend the Clearblue fertility monitor for determining the fertile days when you want to have children. There was not 100% agreement with the Symptothermal method in the highly fertile period, but there was a relatively high hit rate.
Alarm and reminder function
One positive thing I would like to mention here is that the device has an alarm function and it sounds like a small alarm clock in the morning. This reminds you to take the ovulation test and you can’t forget it. That helped me a lot personally, because I like to forget things like that.
Can Clearblue Fertility Monitor help Kiwu couples get pregnant?
I don’t think it’s a surprise that the Clearblue Fertility Monitor also has a positive pregnancy rate in studies. After all, around 26% of the women in the study became pregnant after two cycles with the Clearblue and only 14% in the control group without a fertility monitor. It’s also logical. If you can pinpoint ovulation, having sex at the right time can make it easier to get pregnant. In my opinion, the Clearblue cycle computer is the ideal device for women with normal cycles without previous illnesses to determine the fertile days with little effort.
No cycle diagnostics possible
But are women with normal cycles really the women who can’t get pregnant for a long time? It is mostly women who report to us with menstrual disorders such as PCOS, luteal insufficiency, endometriosis, ovarian insufficiency, post-pill syndrome, amenorrhea and many more. These are not easy cases and a Clearblue fertility monitor would not be able to cope with these cycles based on the cycle length alone. For these women, the Symptothermal method is clearly the best option. After all, the Symptothermal method also works with 100-day cycles, as we impressively illustrated in a case study of a real woman in our article “Getting pregnant despite PCOS”.
Clearblue Monitor is a matter of money
I once met a medical student who really wanted to get pregnant while studying. Unfortunately, she had a serious illness with PCOS, which didn’t make it easy. Another question that troubled this woman was the cost. A medical student only earns enough money after her studies, but then comes the specialist training first. The next step is to get the best possible job in a clinic or to open a practice yourself.
Study is the best time to get pregnant
For the medical student, the Clearblue fertility monitor with its expensive test sticks would have been unaffordable. The best time to get pregnant is then usually when you are at university, because after that there is little time left for having children. For the Symptothermal method you only need an app, a basal thermometer and a book to learn the method. It costs a maximum of 30 euros, which is of course very little compared to a cycle computer. Artificial intelligence vs. natural intelligence? There are currently two developments of mankind. One side wants to solve everything with technology, computers and artificial intelligence. In most cases, women who belong to this movement do not really want to get to know their bodies. They would rather have a cycle tracker that allows them to determine their fertile days quickly and easily. They see cycle evaluation as a means to an end, a necessary evil. It’s not like that for all women, of course, and maybe I’m exaggerating a bit ;). The Clearblue fertility monitor is definitely a good cycle computer and fans of the ideal of technology very much.
The Symptothermal Method is a method for the environment
The other side of women wants to get back to nature and use as little technology as possible. These women buy an analog basal thermometer because it doesn’t require electricity and is made of glass instead of plastic. They love to document and discover their cycle on a classic cycle sheet on eco-friendly paper. Learning a method and thereby understanding yourself better seems to be the right choice for these women. Here, learning a method to encourage natural intelligence and get to know one’s own body is a desired experience on the fertility journey.
How can I learn the Symptohermal method?
But there is a compromise between both worlds. Many women do not even know that the Symptothermal method has long since arrived in the modern world. The basal temperature can be measured automatically with the trackle overnight. The data can be transferred to a smartphone app via Bluetooth and the book has long been digital and can be easily read on a smartphone anywhere in the world. Digital eBook is a bridge between two worlds Our desire to have children eBook “WHEN AM I FERTILE?” contains a step-by-step guide to the Symptothermal Method, with exercise cycles + solutions. Also included with the book are bonus videos on observing cervical mucus, which make learning to observe your body even easier. In the second chapter you will also learn more about menstrual cycle diagnostics and how you can identify yellow body weakness using the temperature curve.
A quote at the end
I would like to end with a quote from Norwegian author Anders Indset, who once said:
“Homo sapiens, the ‘reasonable, wise’ man, becomes Homo obsoletus, the superfluous man, rendered utterly useless after surrendering his power to algorithms.” – Anders Indset
Yes, I have the same feeling – when I look at the development of cycle computers. Of course, the cycle computers are getting better and slowly they can also determine ovulation well. That’s good news and the Clearblue Fertility Monitor demonstrated this impressively in my testimonial. The future definitely belongs to him. Are we losing our natural fertility awareness? However, the new generation loses more than they realize by using cycle computers. After all, no fertility monitor can ever replace the feeling of having recognized your ovulation yourself from the temperature curve for the first time. Over time, a practitioner of the Symptothermal method develops a fertility awareness that nothing can replace. I miss this awareness of fertility competence every time I test a cycle computer. But no matter how you determine your fertile days and ovulation, I wish you all the best on your way to having a child. YOUR ANNE