What is Ferning?

Hi ladies

Sorry for asking a silly question 8-[ but I have seen some people mention ferning monitors in regards to charting, so I was just wondering what exactly is this and is it better than OPK's?

Thanks :)

Hi Lynny,
You can buy a little device which is a microscope with which you look at your saliva. When your saliva has lots of oestrogen in it, which it does at your peak fertile time, then it shows up as a pattern just like fern fronds.
It is quite amazing - I used one for the first time this month. I usually use OPKs because I don't always gets lots of CM. this month I got an +ve OPK at 6pm one day, then had lots of CM, the next afternoon, then got the ferning that evening (about 24 hours after I got the +OPK). It gives a better indication of when you might be O'ing as an OPK just tells you when you are about to 0.

Cool thanks anney :) I think I might try it.

I guess you can get them from the chemist same as OPK's and HPK's then?

I always wonered about them too - how much are they over the ditch in Oz- i haven't even seen any here in NZ - and i still can work an OPK!!! LOL!!! i mean come on pee and wait!!!

I think they are about $60 give or take alittle! But totally reusable, unlike OPK's & HPT's!

I rarely saw any change on the one I borrowed from a friend & wasn't until I temped & Opk'd that I fell preg after using the Maybe Baby saliva tester for 9 months!

But others say they are great!

Yes, I would agree that you should probably use them with other methods such as OPKs. I ave ben using OPKs for 18 months and reliably get a +ve on the same day each month. I just wanted the maybe baby to narrow it down a little more, and to set my mind at rest that everything is still working. they do sound expensive but I have spent more than that on OPKs!!

Hi girls, I've got one, bought it in London three years ago for 30GBP (so is likely to look slightly different to the Aussie product).

Unfortunately for me, I have PCOS so I ALWAYS see ferning...fat lot of good that does me, huh?!

If one of you girls wants to try it, I am happy to send it to you, just PM me and we can work it out. I would only ask for postage to be covered.

:D

So they don't work with PCOS - well thats me out.. am glad i found that out before i went and got one - they have them on the Trademe site - which is teh Kiwi version of ebay for $50 so hmm might just flag that then. Do opk's still work with PCOS?

Hi AJ, as PCOS can affect women in so many different ways (as we both know) it might be that it works for you. For me, I must have lots of Oestrogen floating around in my system, as it is high Oest that makes the ferning.

I can't say for sure about all PCOS women, but I think OPKs work. They do for me. OPK's measure the surge in LH, now for women with PCOS we have higher than normal levels of LH but for me I don't keep getting + results. The only annoying thing is that PCOS can make it hard to know exactly when you should be testing, so you can go through heaps of 'em. One cycle, I used 14 before giving up.

What worked best for me was monitoring CM. Even though my cycle is wonky I notice the EWCM and at least then I know that something could be going on. For me the EWCM can last for a couple of weeks. But at least seeing the EWCM told me if I was going to O in that cycle and then I could guess when AF was due once I stopped seeing EWCM.

HTH

hey - thanks again sal - you seem to be answering a few of my questions lately... Yea i am yet to see a positive OPK - so have given up - at $45 a cycle its too expensive... i am still learning about CM as well - i don't understand that really either especially when bding - can't tell what is what - so am relying on temps -and even those aren't reliable for me right now as i am not sleeping right with our new puppy...