How Does the Persona Contraceptive Monitor Work?

The average woman is only fertile for one day per cycle. This means that the egg which was released at ovulation is only capable of being fertilised for about one day.However it is possible for sperm to survive for up to 5 days inside a woman's body around the time of ovulation. Persona takes into account both egg and sperm survival times to avoid the fertilisation of the newly ovulated egg 5 days later. Although fertility is a one day affair, all of the days when intercourse could lead to fertilisation is refered to as the Fertility Window.

The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) of contraception is about using the knowledge of your body and it's Fertility Window in order to manage fertility decisions. If you wish to avoid pregnancy you need to know the 'safe days'  of your cycle and then decide whether to abstain from sex or use a reversible form of contraception on the 'risky days'. If you wish to conceive, these 'risk days' would become your 'optimum days'. By using your knowledge and awareness of your body's fertile and non-fertile days, you can use Persona for both contraception as well as conception without experiencing the hormonal come-down and health risks associated with hormonal birth control.

Hormonal changes occur directly prior to ovulation, such as the 'LH Surge'.  LH (or Luteinizing Hormone) is the hormone that actually facilitates ovulation by causing the egg to separate from the ovarian surface.
The levels of these natural chemical 'messages' rise and fall as they regulate the various stages of your cycle. This makes it possible to identify the days around ovulation when you are at the highest risk of becoming pregnant.

Ovulation predictor tests, such as Persona, work by detecting this LH Surge and are therefore able to notify the woman when ovulation is about to take place. Persona then carries over it's knowledge of the cycle length and ovulation date to the following cycle to calculate when the next fertility window would begin.

The Persona fertility kit consists of disposable urine Test Sticks and a small hand-held monitor. By measuring your personal hormone levels, Persona lets you know which days you don't need to use contraception. It uses the Test Sticks to analyse your first flow of urine in the morning.  The sticks are then inserted into the monitor, which uses the results to learn about your cycle and can then give you contraceptive advice each day.  Each test stick must only be used once.

Persona can also be used as a means of  increasing the chances of getting pregnant. Persona was produced by Unipath, formed in 1984 by the Unilever group, and is now produced by Swiss Precision Diagnostics (SPD). SPD was formed in 2007 as a joint venture between Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI).

Are There Alternatives to the Messy Urine Tests?

The simple answer to this is "Yes". There are now a range of contraceptive monitors that don't require the standard urination test, but work on a woman's body temperature change during her monthly cycle.

The advantage of these monitors is there is no requirement to buy testing sticks each and every month. Contraceptive monitors such as cyclotest come with a built-in thermometer which you use to take a daily temperature reading which in turn identify ovulation. 20 seconds every morning and your done - no messy urine samples!

This temperature information is stored and recorded by the contraceptive monitor and from this information the monitor can tell you when your fertile and non-fertile days are.

Cyclotest 2 Plus is a real stand-out monitor. Not only does it use your temperature data to dentify ovulation but as an optional extra it's able to test accept LH hormone level test results, like Persona. This double-check feature is unique in contraceptive monitors currently available in Europe. The result is an accuracy of 99% against Personas 96%.  And if that's not enough reason to take a look at Cyclotest, within a years worth of normal use works out cheaper that a regular priced Persona.

For a comparison of Contraceptive Monitors, visit the Ethical Family Planning website.