Microscope to Check Saliva/CM

[umsami]

About 8 or so years ago, I purchased this little hand held microscope type thing that allowed you to check your salive (or CM) to see if you were fertile. Basically, you put a sample on one end, and then you held it up to the light or there may have even been a little battery powered light. From what I remember, the key was looking for "fern" shapes. I got pregnant the first month after I bought it... and then it got lost in moving. I never really used it long enough to see if it worked... but I'm interested in getting another one. I think I bought it through Gaiam (although they had a different name back then) or some other such catalog. I want to say it was in the $40-60 range.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? What are the Brand names?

Do they work or has this theory been debunked?

[annie2186]

Hey!
Ok - so I have done a crazy amount of research on all things fertility related (I'm Catholic, so unless I want to have 20 kids, I might want to figure out how to do these things )

I do believe that they would work - however - there is of course a lot of room for user error/ user interpretation.

The three things I would suggest doing is
1. just google it! You would be surprised at the amount of information you find
2. If you can find a REAL microscope for about the same price (I think for 40-60 bucks you could get a pretty good one) it would work better. PLUS you could keep a slide of the last 5-7 days so you have something to compare it to and see the progression of ferns.
3. If you can stomach it - use your cervical mucus instead! It will be a much better indicator AND I have heard that it ferns so much easier and is easier to test (once again, just research, never done it myself).

HTH!