These at-home fertility tests demystify your fertile windows.
Photo: iStockphoto
Can I get pregnant? It’s a question on many women’s minds, especially after just coming off birth control, experiencing irregular periods or simply getting older and longing to start a family. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 17.5% of the adult population (or 1 in 6 worldwide) experience infertility, which is defined as the failure to conceive after a full year of trying. That can be scary when you want a baby right now or later down the line.
The best at-home fertility tests for women can flag potential fertility issues and arm you with the knowledge to be proactive about your reproductive health prior to trying to conceive or while you wait to get into your doctor for further testing. Some may even help you get pregnant faster by helping you understand when you’re most fertile.
From hormone and ovarian reserve tests to ovulation predictors, we’ve put together a list of the top at-home fertility tests for a wide variety of needs and health concerns.
“At-home testing can be an important component of a pre-conception journey and may also help someone in their consideration of fertility preservation,” says Director of Clinical Client Implementations at WIN, Rachael Jones, MSN, APRN, FNP. Dr. Peter Rizk, OB/GYN and Fertility Specialist for Fairhaven Health agrees.
“For older couples, it’s important to not waste valuable time, so I recommend they wait no more than six months to begin fertility assessment,” he says.
At-home fertility tests can help women take control of their reproductive health as they gear up to start trying, look ahead to the future or wait to get into their doctor for more extensive evaluation.
Are at-home fertility tests for women a good place to start?
Definitely. According to Rizk, an at-home fertility test, no matter what the brand, can be a good place to start for women who are curious about their basic numbers or have gaps in medical histories. For those with regular cycles, ovulation predictor kits can be especially useful in nailing down your most fertile days so you can time sex at the optimal point in your cycle for conception.
“Tests for ovarian reserve, such as the FSH testing, is a good first step at looking at your fertility picture or thinking about fertility preservation (egg freezing),” adds Jones. Though for the complete picture, a follow-up ultrasound to match with this test within a couple of days is indicated, so it can be helpful to connect with a Reproductive Endocrinologist or OB/GYN first, she notes.
For accuracy, Jones recommends looking for at-home fertility tests with CLIA certification. These tests for women are a good place to start when you're not ready (or able) to run sperm tests or semen analysis with a partner.
“This means that the lab is certified to receive and test the samples and a physician-recommended one is also a good idea,” she says of choosing the best at home fertility test.
Chances are, you’ve heard the name Everlywell before. This popular at-home fertility test measures 5 key hormones (estradiol estrogen, FSH, LH, TSH and total testosterone) that play a major role in a female’s fertility, checking for any imbalances that could affect your ability to conceive.
The test only requires a small amount of blood, which can be collected in the convenience of your own home with the included lancet and blood collection card, and sent in with the prepaid shipping label for lab analysis. All labs used are FDA-approved and CLIA-certified so you know the results are legit. The instructions are also super clear and easy to follow so it’s tough to mess up.
Results are available to download between five to eight days after your sample is received and everything is thoroughly reviewed by a board-certified physician in your state first. Everlywell also provides you with a recorded educational session to better understand your test and next steps.
If analyzing lines on basic strip ovulation tests isn't your thing, then you'll love this smart and affordable ovulation Predict & Confirm Kit from Proov that takes the guesswork out of whether you ovulated or not. It comes with 15 LH strips to accurately predict your two most fertile days, as well as five PdG strips to help you confirm successful ovulation FTW. In fact, it's the only FDA-cleared PdG (a urine marker of progesterone) test available.
For those who like to know everything, you'll receive an exclusive ovulation score—along with lab-level numeric results at home—on the free Proov app in minutes, details on what your results actually mean, plus a personalized action plan to help you know what your next steps should be in your pregnancy journey.
And if you're terrible at remembering to pee on your test strips (ahem, me), the app will even send you friendly reminders so you don't forget. There's also 1:1 support included with your purchase should you have questions about testing or your results.
For those who want to get serious about tracking their ovulation and doing the deed during their most fertile window (AKA significantly increasing your chances of pregnancy), Mira is a godsend. Essentially, it assesses your daily "Fertility Score", which will straight up tell your odds of conceiving on any given day during your cycle based on your Estrogen and LH hormone levels—and it's 99% accurate in detecting these hormone surges.
To use it, you just dip the included test wands in your urine, insert them into your Mira Analyzer and wait 16 minutes for your personalized hormone scores on the Mira app. Easy peasy, right?
What makes Mira superior to similar at-home fertility tests for women is the ability to not only accurately pinpoint your six-day fertility window, but the use of AI to provide you with a completely personalized cycle prediction chart. This allows you to view your own unique hormone patterns over time in an easy-to-read and interpret way.
Mira is PCOS-friendly and works wonderfully for women with irregular cycles too.
One of the most comprehensive and best at-home fertility tests for women available, Modern tests up to seven different hormones that can impact a woman's fertility and deliver personalized, physician-approved reports in 10 days or less. The test is also CLIA-certified, and if you're not into the idea of collecting your own blood (or don't trust yourself to do it properly at home), you can pop into a local Quest Diagnostics Lab and let the pros prick you instead.
What's really cool is that Modern is completely customized based on the birth control you're on so results are more accurate. The test can help you learn more about your ovarian reserve, potential outcomes for egg freezing or IVF and pinpoint other potential fertility concerns, such as problems with your thyroid or PCOS.
And for those who love to chat all things pregnancy with fellow females in the same boat, there's a whole Modern Community where you can connect with other women TTC and fertility experts for answers to all your questions.
With over 60,000 five-star reviews, the Easy@Home Ovulation Test Strips are a no-brainer for women TTC (trying to conceive) who don't want to splurge on more advanced at-home fertility tests but still want something super reliable and trustworthy to predict their most fertile days.
This combo kit comes with 50 ovulation test strips so you can test multiple times a day without feeling like you're literally peeing money down the drain. And they're really easy to read too: a test line as dark or darker than the control line indicates a positive, or rather time to get your groove on.
Pair it with the free Premom Ovulation Test Reader app for instant digital results and to track your ovulation progression each cycle. The app also allows you to chart cervical fluid, basal body temperature, cervical position and more indicators of ovulation so you can understand your body and cycle better than ever.
Because waiting to see if you got a BFP (big fat positive) is the hardest part and pregnancy tests are expensive, this kit also includes 20 pregnancy test strips so you can find out if you conceived without an extra trip to the store, which we're all for.
Whether you're fresh out of college or in your mid-30s with babies on the brain, knowing your ovarian reserve is so important to understanding your reproductive timeline and planning for the future, which may or may not include freezing your eggs. Proov has excellent user reviews from real women and is a simple at-home pee test that checks your FSH levels, providing valuable insight (with lab-level numbers) into your ovarian reserve and how many eggs you may have left.
The test boasts 99% accuracy at detecting FSH in urine and includes 1:1 support, as well as a private community where you can connect with fertility hormone experts and other women who may receive the same results as you do so you have someone who can relate to talk to.
For quick and accurate fertility results you can trust, MyLabBox is the way to go. They offer free two-day shipping to get your kit, and online results are promised within one to five days after it's received by their lab, which is fully certified by CAP & CLIA for preciseness. The test itself measures the levels of four different hormones (estradiol, FSH, luteinizing hormone/LH and testosterone) that play a vital role in your fertility.
A quick finger prick and saliva sample is all that's required, plus everything you need to do it from the convenience of your own home in just five minutes is included.
While MyLabBox can't give you an infertility diagnosis, it can be the gentle push many women need to get to their doctor for further testing. It's also great if you're just impatient like me and hate waiting for results to come in. And if it turns out those results weren't what you were expecting, MyLabBox also offers a free physician consult to help answer any questions or concerns you might have.
Experts:
This article contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Keep up with your baby's development, get the latest parenting content and receive special offers from our partners