When you first sign up for Fertility Friend, you are automatically offered 30-day free access to the VIP site. This site includes a number of special features, including a fertility analyzer -- a little stop light that pops up next to your calendar and tells you that you are "most likely not fertile" (which totally freaked me out when I signed up -- I'M INFERTILE???!!! FYI, that's not what it means) or "possibly fertile" or "most likely fertile." This feature, while a little silly, is not the big problem. The big problem is the Pregnancy Monitor. This thing is such a pot of bullshit.
Here's how the Pregnancy Monitor works. After ovulation has been detected and you've entered your luteal phase (LP) the Pregnancy Monitor kicks in. (Side note: this time is also known as the Two Week Wait [TWW] between ovulation and your period during which you've hoping you'll be able to get a big fat positive pregnancy test [BFP]). The Pregnancy Monitor compares all your symptoms to the symptoms of all the other charts on the site where women have achieved pregnancy that cycle. So, if you had cramping on 5 days past ovulation (DPO) and lots of pregnant women also had cramping at 5DPO, you essentially score points on the Early Pregnancy Signs chart.
The Pregnancy Monitor also scores your Intercourse Timing, looking at whether or not you had sex three days before, two days before and one day before ovulation as well as on the day of ovulation itself and even the day after ovulation. If you have sex two of those days you've rated as having a "good" chance of having achieved pregnancy this cycle.
This all sounds like it could possibly be useful information, right? I thought so too. Last cycle, I eagerly entered my symptoms each day during my LP. I had 70 points out of 100 in the Early Pregnancy Signs scale. My temps were high and even seemed triphasic (where after the initial post-ovulatory spike you have a second spike of temps that may indicate implantation and pregnancy). And, according to the Intercourse Timing analyzer, I had a "High" score.
This is why, when my period came 12 DPO, I felt especially crushed. We had "done everything right." I even had the "scores" to prove it this time.
The ray of sunshine in this experience is that my 30-day free trial of the Fertility Friend VIP site ended while I was in the middle of my last period, and I gladly refused all the site's attempts to sign up for the VIP membership at a reduced price. Now I simply have the basic site access for free, where I can still enter my temps and signs, but I don't have the luxury of comparing all my signs to all the other charts. And I am much happier.
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