Product Guide: Ov-Watch

Ov-Watch Product Review:
Predict Ovulation While You Sleep with the Ov-Watch!

Imagine a world of the future in which all you needed to do to predict ovulation was to strap on a light-weight plastic watch at night and then go to nighty-night. While you slept, the watch took "readings" of your skin's perspiration composition, detecting changing levels of salts. Imagine waking up in the morning and instead of going through the rigors of various tests, temperature-taking, and fertility charting, all you did was roll over, hit your alarm, and take a look at the "result" displayed on your "ovulation watch". Sound a bit like Star Trek or some high-tech fantasy world of the future?

The future is today - and the OV-Watch [1] is the ovulation predictor you wear at night while you sleep!

How does the OV-Watch Ovulation Watch work?

The OV-Watch [1] functions in two ways - as a standard ovulation calendar and as a bio-sensor that detects changes in the chemical make-up of your perspiration. As most trying-to-conceive women know, in the weeks prior to ovulation, different reproductive hormones ebb and flow, particularly estrogen. As estrogens increase, so does the salinity content in saliva and in perspiration. In saliva, this change results in "ferning" patterns that are visible in dried saliva samples (viewed through a special ovulation microscope). In perspiration, the increase in salinity is reflected by a corresponding increase in chloride-ions.

The OV-Watch [1] is designed, through its unique bio-sensor, to detect and measure fluctuations in the levels of salinity in perspiration - and all this is done while you sleep. Not too bad an idea, huh? That means you do not need to wear the watch at work or in public. Just strap on your wrist at night and remove in the morning after you read you results.

Better yet, the OV-Watch offers you a full five to six day fertility spectrum, instead of the two-day window provided by urine-based LH ovulation tests. So to use the OV-Watch, you simply start wearing it on cycle day one and enter your average cycle length into the computer. As you approach the day you ovulate, the bio-sensor will detect an increase in chloride-ions in natural perspiration, and let you know which "fertile day" you are one - for example, "fertile day 2". On the day the computer estimates that you will ovulate, it will tell you "ovulation day 1". This is going to be your moment of highest fertility.

Impressive technology! You bet, and according to the manufacturer, the OV-Watch is proven to be a clinical success. It's also been cleared by the FDA. That said, as we will discuss below, even the OV-Watch should be used in conjunction with other fertility prediction techniques, as its best to come at your ovulation day from several different angles!

OV-Watch and Urine LH Sticks

Below, you'll see a chart indicating the difference between the OV-Watch [1] and LH tests [2]. As noted throughout our website, the LH surge is rapid and short-lived, but provides a precise notice when ovulation will transpire (as LH is the chemical signal that causes the egg to burst from the ovary). What's nice about the OV-Watch, however, is that it gives you a few days notice - a longer window of opportunity - as the salinity-producing estrogens rise at a slower, more gradual rate. Using both tests together is going to be the best way to achieve pregnancy - and you can verify the egg has been released place by confirming a temp shift with your BBT.

The makers of the OV-Watch suggest that you no longer need to take your basal temperature or use urine LH tests. You just wear the OV-Watch while you sleep and there you go, the result awaits you in the morning, flashing in your digital watch face. According to OV-Watch estimates, 66% more pregnancies should occur over LH urine sticks. That said, there is reason that you should discontinue LH testing as well...

Thus, our suggestion would be to continue fertility charting (using your BBT thermometer and checking standard fertility symptoms) even if you do elect to use the OV-Watch, as several distinct ovulation prediction techniques are going to be better than any one fertility tool or predictive approach! With the low price of ovulation sticks now days (the strip format) you can even verify your LH surge by starting to LH test when the OV-Watch signals the first, early days of fertility. That way, you can have double the confidence as to when to time love-making! And you are verifying the activity of two hormones instead of one: the estrogens and luteinizing hormone. And of course, using your BBT thermometer will tell you when you ovulate - no other device or test can confirm this short of a doctor's ultrasound.

In summary, we recommend the OV-Watch [1] as a handy new tool - and no device works while you sleep. At the same time, keep charting and stay in touch with your natural fertility signs the old-fashioned way!