A few months back, I went on a girls night out with my friends from college and one of them brought along a friend, Eva (name changed), who has been trying to conceive (TTC) for 2 years now and only recently managed to conceive after 3 rounds of IVF.
After having 3 wonderful kids, I had discussed the prospect of having another baby once or twice with my husband and we decided that it’s best to wait it out for at least 3-4 years until my youngest, Parker, turns 6 (she is 2 right now).
Keeping in mind the fact that we will dearly miss our baby Parker when she is off to school and will be ready to welcome a new member by then.
But this conversation with Eva made me wonder if I could still conceive with the same ease that I did with my other two Charlotte and Leah.
For Parker, I decided to get an IUI because we didn’t get any results after trying for 2 months and honestly, I ran out of patience!
After running a few blood tests my doctor suspected that I might not be ovulating but we didn’t try to “fix” it and decided to move ahead with IUI.
Fortunately, I managed to conceive after one round of IUI, and multiple injections, and all the medical reports that indicated hormonal imbalance were dusted under the carpet.
My gut feeling told me that ‘anovulation’ might come to bite me when we plan our fourth.
I am also nearing my 40s so waiting too long will leave me with few options and the thought of IVF sends shivers down my spine. The thought of all the nasty injections and doctor visits kept me up all night and sent me down a rabbit hole of fertility research.
Soon, I ended up ordering a ton of ovulation kits and snazzy-looking fertility monitors- only to find out IF I was still ovulating. Here’s a lowdown of what my ovulation odyssey looked like.
Ovulation kits are weird
Would you believe it if you ovulated for 7 days in your cycle?!
Well, spoiler alert- my OPKs made me feel like a fertility goddess and showed me that smiley emoji on all the days I tested.
To be honest, I kind of felt reassured that if not all 7 days, I might be ovulating at least one day but when I tried BBTs or the cervical mucus technique, they showed quite the opposite.
Clearly, the Sahara desert thriving inside my vagina did not feel too happy about the ‘fertility goddess’ title.
When I continued my research, I found out that OPKs measure the Luteinizing Hormone which is a fertility hormone, and if your LH doesn’t match their threshold, the strip says that you are not ovulating.
“Ok then” I wondered, my LH must be damn sweet to jump all the way up and seize the day but hear this- your LH hormone surge does not confirm if you are ovulating!
So your LH can dance around all day but if you want to find out if you are actually ovulating, you need to find out if your progesterone levels are rising after your LH rose.
And just like that, the $89 I spent on ovulation kits of every brand ever went right down the drain.
A strip for every damn hormone
Next stop on my ovulation odyssey was fertility monitors which measured multiple hormones. The catch?
So.Many. Test.Strips!!
Unfortunately, most of them don’t measure all your hormones at one go and need you to test during a specific time with different hormone strips. Inserting so many strips on a sloppy egg-like monitor stressed me out. It took so much time to respond and I grew tired of it sooner than I thought.
I started using them during my follicular phase and honestly, gave up after 2 days because I had to pick my kids up from school during my testing window and I didn’t have the time (or a toilet) to stop and track my progesterone levels on the way.
One of the fancy monitors took over an hour to show results and I discovered my results only a day later while closing multiple app windows on my phone.
While the testing process was relatively simple with fertility monitors and I could see charts that showed hormone trends, there was one that stood out to me in terms of features, usability, price, and customer experience.
The Inito Fertility Monitor
I came across Inito on Amazon and this device appeared on top with a 4+ rating and lots of credible reviews.
I did not expect much when I unboxed it looking at the packaging and a rather plain-looking device that needs to be mounted on your phone for testing. While I would rate it 3 or 2.5 for its packaging and appearance, I was surprised to find that it outperformed similar products and was indeed a *godsend* for someone like me who needed a quick and easy method to confirm ovulation.
What is Inito & how does it work?
Inito is a fertility monitor that measures all four fertility hormones – follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estrogen, luteinizing hormone (LH), and progesterone (PdG). And the best part is that all four hormones are measured on a single test strip!
I kept looking at the app thinking that it would ask me to take out another strip to test a different hormone but thankfully, it took just one dip and I could see all my hormones line up on a graph!
To get started, you need to pee in a cup and then insert the test strip in the cup for 15 seconds.
Once out, you insert the test strip into the monitor attached to your phone. Within less than 5 minutes, you would be able to check your hormone values on detailed charts which are easy to read and can be shared with only a few taps.
I was excited to find out what my graph meant so I contacted Inito’s customer rep who was kind enough to tell me that it was too early to tell anything and I had to continue testing as per the app. Fair enough.
The website says that it shows three different results based on the phase of your cycle.
- High Fertility 🟢 – When estrogen starts rising 3-4 days before ovulation.
- Peak Fertility 🔵– When LH starts rising 24-36 hours before ovulation.
- Ovulation Confirmed 🟣 – When Progesterone (PdG) starts rising consistently a few days after ovulation.
Your fertile window is marked by the days of high fertility and peak fertility. This is around the same time around when you receive this nice ‘ovulation confirmed’ message as I did, after using this device for two cycles.
Learning about Anovulation
After testing with Inito for a complete cycle, I was surprised to find out that I did not receive any message about ovulation and my fertile window was short. I received this notification “Your PdG hasn’t risen” during the 19th day of my cycle when I thought I would be ovulating.
When I checked my hormone graph, my LH had surged TWICE and my PdG was stagnant at the bottom.
Naturally, I panicked and reached out to my OB with the hormone graphs the very next day. Turns out, Inito was right! I really did not ovulate during that cycle and even as my doctor reassured me that it’s normal, I was not convinced. The customer rep at Inito shared a link to Inito’s Facebook community where I came across a ton of hormone charts where PdG failed to rise to the occasion and boy was I relieved!
Some of the members assured me that it is normal and that hormone medications are super effective in getting PdG up and rising again.
After taking medications prescribed by my OB, these were my graphs through the next two months-
Cons of using Inito
Bit expensive
Honestly, I am not complaining because I did end up losing all the money I spent on cheaper OPKs. Inito is a great investment for the long run because the strips are affordable and the monitor is only a one-time buy unless you change your phone model every other month.
You also don’t need to buy multiple kinds of strips as you do for other fertility monitors as one strip tracks all four hormones on the Inito monitor. One pack of 15 strips is enough for monthly use and Inito also gives discounts on subscriptions. The phone mount somehow also works with multiple iPhone models if used carefully.
Compatible only with iPhone
My backup phone is an android and I sometimes like to use my ancient Blackberry. Both are sadly incompatible with the Inito device but they support all Apple devices so even if you are using an old iPhone 8 like my husband, you are in luck!
Results might take long once in a while
98% of the time I got my results in less than 5 minutes of testing but on two or three occasions, it took a little longer (7-8 minutes) to share results. I don’t mind waiting a few extra minutes as long as I am getting to know the exact dates of my fertile window but I am not sure if the experience is the same for others.
Pros of using Inito
Shows actual values and graphs
After giving birth to 3 kids, I can only take careful, calculated steps when it comes to making decisions that concern my reproductive health. It makes me sad to think that I could have avoided the IUI completely had I known about anovulation earlier but thankfully, that is no longer a concern.
Inito removes the guesswork from your hormone levels and gives you accurate results. You don’t have to worry about falling within any ‘set threshold’. They can do their own thing and all you need to do is test daily and track the values on your hormone charts.
Single test strip
The ease of testing ONCE a day with your first-morning urine and getting along with your usual routine should not be underestimated. With Inito I don’t need to carry my device around along with a urine cup all day just to get accurate results. Just one dip and that’s it!
App shows the way
I really loved how the app guided me on every step with tips, test notifications, and a way forward. Especially because I am one of those women who need to be nudged to follow prescriptions and have an app that tells her to drink water every hour.
If you have any questions, they are kind enough to listen and have clinical experts who guide you every step of the way.
Personalized experience
The moment you first log in, the app asks you for all the nitty gritty like past pregnancies, and chronic conditions like PCOS/Thyroid along with usual health vitals.
Accordingly, it customizes results and proposes different kinds of testing patterns because ovulation trends vary if you have conditions like PCOS. This is quite helpful because my friends who suffer from PCOS have often complained that fertility devices disregard the fact that their hormone levels are imbalanced which often leads to false positive results.
It will soon be 3 months since I started testing with Inito and till now, I have used three packs of test strips (15×3) and the monitor is working perfectly. The app usually tells me to test for 11-15 days based on my menstrual cycle and ovulation trends so I subscribed to their monthly plan of one box of strips. I am planning to use it until my hormones are completely stabilized and whenever my OB gives me a go-ahead so I can start my TTC journey.
I will definitely recommend Inito if you have been TTC for a while and haven’t seen satisfactory results. It can fit easily into your lifestyle and gives a lot of clarity by pointing out what your fertility hormones are up to.
