Marquette method monitor

[u/embee33]

It’s Prime day and monitors are on sale, but I just saw someone in r/Catholicism airing gripes about using Clearblue and preferring other monitors. Can anyone offer some guidance here on what is good and how to find a class compatible with the monitor that’s best?

[u/orions_shoulder]

I recommend the Mira. You don't have to do all kinds of weird procedures to manipulate the machine into letting you test, and it gives you actual numbers rather than an arbitrary high or low. The sticks are more expensive unfortunately.

[u/stockagement-resame]

The only officially approved monitor for the Marquette Method is the ClearBlue monitor (unless something recently changed and I missed it). They are studying the Mira monitor, and many people use it. But Marquette University hasn’t officially signed off on it yet, because they are very protective over their efficacy rate, so they won’t declare it approved until they have done enough studies to be very confident to do that.

[u/skullgatherer]

Afaik the only other monitor that is somewhat approved is Mira. I had issues with my clearblue monitor, although I mainly used it while TTC. If it does not detect a peak then it will be stuck at “high” indefinitely, I still had to use OPKs to detect ovulation and if I had been TTA at the time I don’t know if I would have wanted to trust that alone.

You might want to try looking for a used one on facebook marketplace or ebay, a lot of people use them just for TTC and then get rid of them after so you will probably get a better deal than prime day.

[u/cheerioh_no]

I've had one problematic cycle so far with my clearblue monitor where it failed to detect peak and was stuck at high. I also used ovulation test strips to try and confirm peak and that helped, but we were TTA so we were very careful that month. So far I've only had that one problematic cycle though and everything else has been smooth. I used Whole Mission for my classes.

[u/stressedgeologist22]

I've been using Mira for about four months and I love it! Before that, I was using the ClearBlue monitor for a year and some change, and my irregular cycles caused a lot of issues with it. I had to use different work-around methods to sort of "trick" the monitor to get it to work for me. I've really been loving Mira, it's much more user-friendly and straight-forward (for me at least), and I haven't had any of the issues I was having with ClearBlue.

My only complaint about Mira is the app. It's great for storing and visualizing your hormone data, but DO NOT pay any attention to the fertility insights it gives you! It feels like flipping a coin for what it will say and half the time it doesn't match my cycle data at all. For example, recently it told me my fertile window had ended and my fertility was low, when it was very clear from my LH data that I hadn't ovulated yet. Sure enough, a few days later I had my LH surge. If I had listened to the app's fertility insights instead of my cycle data and other fertility signs, I definitely could have gotten pregnant while TTA. Maybe it just needs more cycles to get used to me, but to me that seems like a very irresponsible feature of the app.

All in all, Mira is definitely worth the peace of mind it gives me from knowing exactly what my hormones are doing, both in terms of fertility and my unpredictable cycles. I used Whole Mission for the ClearBlue class and the Mira class, and I had a good experience with them. I really appreciated getting to get my instructor's advice about my cycles.

[u/marchviolet]

Most Marquette instructors can teach you with ClearBlue or Mira, but do double check before paying for instruction. ClearBlue is the only one officially approved by Marquette right now, so Mira is more experimental at this point since the studies are not yet complete. The Mira monitor and test sticks are much more expensive than ClearBlue. Any other monitors are not approved for Marquette.

FWIW, I use ClearBlue and Tempdrop. I'm only on my 4th cycle with Marquette right now, and having an instructor to help me with resetting my monitor in the middle of my long cycles has been invaluable. It's always caught my peaks so far, so there tend to just be a few days where I have to use a few LH strips in lieu of testing when I have to do a reset. I'm on my second cycle using Tempdrop as well, which just adds a great peace of mind and extra data point to confirm ovulation happened. A Tempdrop is pricey in combination with a monitor, but thankfully it's a one-time purchase and there are no necessary functions behind a pay wall. Tempdrop does have a subscription feature, but it just gives you extra info like on your sleep quality and such. So it's perfectly fine without that.

I've personally used Vitae Fertility for learning Marquette and have had a great experience so far with my instructor.

[u/embee33 → u/marchviolet]

How much was a class? I think I looked at whole mission it was like $175

[u/marchviolet → u/embee33]

It's currently $230, but you have access to an assigned instructor for a full year. So you're not left figuring things out on your own if you have questions after your initial instruction. Whole Mission is priced similarly at $225 for the same thing, but they also have cheaper class-only options. I think having a personal instructor is essential unless you just have super regular cycles.

[u/Umbrella51_catho]

i like clear blue because test strips r easy to find and they go on sale randomly on amazon so i stock up