What FMD(s) are you using? Please read the poll description!

This poll is for those of us who are using fertility monitoring devices (FMDs) to help us track our fertility, monitor our cycles and correctly identify the exact day of ovulation each month. Those of us who are using the Symptothermal method may be using more than one of the above together or we may be using something not listed. Here's how to make your selection... Simply pick your favorite or imagine that if you had to throw out all your FMDs except for one, which one would you choose to keep, i.e. Which is your favorite?

For those of you who have not yet started your personalized program that you design for yourself with the help of your doctors, your individualized research, and based off the advice of experts you talk to online as well as the recommendations of ladies who have been using drugless birth control methods for a long time now, it's important that you understand that not all of the FMDs listed here and used in general were not designed to be used for contraception, and by themselves, are not adequate forms of birth control. Basically, we use them to HELP us identify our ovulation dates and to cross check our predictions. The following information will be posted in its own separate post outside of this polling page. So don't worry about this information disappearing once the poll is no longer available.

There are a couple exceptions however in the above list:

The Lady-Comp ($450) was designed to be used as contraception and has received approval by the Canadian government's federal approval by their equivalent to the United States' FDA. The US FDA is currently coming to a formal decision on whether they will approve Lady-Comp as an accepted contraceptive device (however as of Summer 2017, a unanimous decision for approval has not been reached yet). Lady-Comp uses the Calendar method in conjunction with your basal temperature to identify a predicted ovulation date and then once ovulation is confirmed via a sustained thermal temperature shift, it will tell you that it is okay to resume unprotected sex again up through your period (which it will alert you to its nearing arrival) and into the following cycle until it notifies you of the next fertile window becoming present. Lady-Comp has the capability of notifying you if you do become pregnant. Should that happen, the company offers the ability to upgrade the device to a Baby-Comp version of the software for free without having to pay for a second device. Once the device has been upgraded to the Baby-Comp version, it has the additional feature of being able to give a fairly accurate prediction of the the gender of your unborn child based on Basal Temperature. And finally, although the price may make the Lady-Comp seem out of what many of us can afford to pay for an item, especially those of us who are trying to prevent pregnancy partly for financial reasons, the company offers a monthly payment plan of $50 dollars monthly in which, after you either reach $200 down, or if you can pay this part on your own at first, you will then be eligible to have your device mailed to you. This company has been known to really work with women though if you aren't able to pay as much as $50 per month or if you would like to arrange to make larger chunks and get it paid off faster.

The ibasal Computerized basal body thermometer ($50) which although it says on the back of the device, "Not For Contraception" was evaluated by the United States FDA and is currently approved as an effective contraceptive device in the United States. Like the Lady-Comp, it combines the Rhythm/Calendar method with your basal temperature and does all of the same things except that it does not have a mode for if you become pregnant which continues to monitor your health and the health of the pregnancy using your temperature nor does it predict the gender of the child. It will however do everything else though that I described regarding the Lady-Comp including alerting you of accidentally becoming pregnant. At only $50 dollars, this makes it just 1/9th of the cost of the other. The ibasal Computerized basal body thermometer is FDA approved as a reliable and effective form of contraception in the USA with FDA approval (even though it was originally created, designed, manufactured and marketed with the idea of helping assist in achieving pregnancy). I do not know if the software inside the inside the ibasal has been modified from its original version in order to be set to either prevent or achieve pregnancy but for this reason, I would not recommend purchasing an older model or a previously used one that was bought many moons ago and is being sold on eBay or anything like that. On the other hand, the Lady-Comp has both a first generation and second generation model and either are fine as they both function identically (the only difference is that the first generation model cannot be updated to the Baby-Comp software should you accidentally become pregnant and then the newer one has a more modern look to it and comes in a case rather than a drawstring fabric bag). I purchased my first generation Lady-Comp slightly used off of eBay for $100 dollars after asking the seller a few questions about how it had been used and what condition it was in and it works fantastically.

Natural Cycles is an app that has been FDA approved in the USA as a form of effective contraception. Natural Cycles uses the same method as Lady-Comp and ibasal which combines both the Calendar method and the Basal Body Temperature (bbt) method. Just like Lady-Comp and ibasal, it identifies a predicted ovulation date and then once ovulation is confirmed via a sustained thermal shift, the app then signals you that it is okay to resume unprotected sex up through your period and into the following cycle until it notifies you of the next fertile window becoming present. Lady-Comp and ibasal both have the capability of notifying you if you do become pregnant and I believe that Natural Cycles will inform you of this as well as the app or computer program or your own brain can see from the temperature results if you have become pregnant because the sustained thermal shift which occurs after ovulation will stay put if you are pregnant. If you simply skip a period, your temperature will still go back down after the 3-7 days of your missed period have passed. For this reason, the ibasal, the Lady-Comp and Natural Cycles are all exceptional and all three are government approved - the ibasal and Natural Cycles by the United States and the Lady-Comp by Canada. Natural Cycles will work with any basal thermometer and costs either $80 dollars for a one year subscription or $7 dollars per month and requires a credit card or a debit card with a VISA or MasterCard logo stamped on it. You can also pay through iTunes using PayPal. I use my subscription with my ibasal thermometer as I find the software on the thermometer a tad confusing and then I use my Lady-Comp on its own. It's an excellent way to make sure that your thermometers are both calibrated and working properly with correct measurements to use two different devices however many people would consider this overkill. For me it's a matter of definitely not becoming pregnant effectively though.

iCycleBeads is an app, a website based online version and also a literal item you can hold in your hands which is a string of well-made, reinforced beads in a circle with a plastic o-ring that slides along from bead to bead to keep track of the present cycle day. The original Cycle Beads come in a cardboard box and used to be widely available for purchase in many health food and natural medicine stores as well as being available for order online. I don't know if they're as available as they used to be since the release of their app version and web version along with their new crystal and cats eye deluxe version. Cycle Beads and the iCycleBeads app uses the Rhythm/Calendar method exclusively which permits for 15 days of unprotected sexual intercourse and 12 days of either abstinence, sex using a barrier method, or sex without penetration sex/vaginal ejaculation. Essentially what I'm pointing out is that the beads don't have any form of intelligence like Natural Cycles, Lady-Comp and ibasal do, which, as they get to know you and your cycle better will begin to allow you a lot more unprotected sex than just 15 days. Cycle Beads are FDA approved as a safe and effective method of contraception by the FDA as well as by the Canadian government. One downside however is that they don't assist in identifying ovulation and they're not considered to be effective for use by women with irregular cycles or with cycles shorter than 25 days or longer than 32.

The iCycleBeads app costs $2.99 as a one time payment. There is a web version with a 30-day free trial for $12.00 dollars a year. And the original Cycle Beads themselves come in a cheap plastic version which has only one color scheme and costs $13.95 while the Deluxe Cycle Beads are made from cats eye and crystal stones and come in the color schemes aqua, mauve, and copper for $26.95

Now let's look at our options which are not intended to work as effective contraceptive devices and are not FDA approved for anything other than helping with becoming pregnant. Why would we use these at all and what for? These devices

The OvaCue Fertility Monitor ($279) is best used with the OvaGraph.com website and free app. It was not designed to prevent pregnancy and none of the major governmental health agencies from the USA, Canada, Australia, or the UK have approved it for such purposes. However, it is an excellent tool to use as a SUPPORTING PROVIDER OF CLUES *ONLY* to add to your personalized symptothermal contraceptive method. By itself though, it will not prevent pregnancy. Instead it could accidentally cause an unwanted pregnancy if used alone as it doesn't predict ovulation with enough time in advance to make sure that you have not had unprotected sex at all for at least five days prior to ovulation, ensuring that there are not any live sperm hanging around in your uterus at the time your ovary discharges an egg cell. It also sometimes doesn't get its predictions perfect and has to revise which day ovulation occurred upon once it's able to confirm that it has occurred. OvaGraph.com however is an excellent FREE fertility charting app and website which you can use to track your fertility signs and signals on as well as your basal temperature without having to graph the entire chart by hand each month.