10 Best Ovulation Tests 2024 in the United States

For women seeking to become pregnant, they have a rough estimate of what is the best time to try to conceive: it is usually the entire second week/beginning of the third week of the menstrual cycle. This is a calendar-based method of determining ovulation--which isn’t very accurate since once the ovary releases an egg, it must be fertilized within about 24 hours. But there are also symptom-based methods, that measure the changes in a woman’s body before and during ovulation.

Most ovulation tests measure luteinizing hormone (=LH), which peaks around a 1 ½ days before ovulation, and then drops immediately after ovulation. (In fact, LH is the hormone that actually causes ovulation.) Ovulation usually happens around 14 days before menstruation, so you have a rough idea of when to start testing, to figure out the two most likely days to become pregnant. Nowadays, there are methods of detecting ovulation by measuring LH levels in the urine during that short window of time--and some of these tests boast an accuracy of 98%! You’ll see that there are a variety of ovulation tests available, differing in accuracy, ease of use, and cost.  

We've put together this guide to help you select the best ovulation test that answers to your needs. It'll help you:

• Choose the right type of ovulation test,

• See useful tips about that type of ovulation test,

• Read reviews of different brands of the best ovulation tests, and what customers are saying,

• Select the right brand of ovulation test, and

• Compare prices and find the best deals.

There are ovulation tests that check for the presence of LH in saliva, or that measure changes in basal body temperature (such as the Baoyl Women LED Digital Basal Measuring Ovulation Thermometer Probe). You can detect a 0.5-1.0 degree Fahrenheit increase in your body temperature on the day before ovulation--which remains until after menstruation. However, the most accurate ovulation tests on the market nowadays measure the amount of LH in the urine. Let’s see some of the options available:

• Disposable Urine Test Strips: These also detect the LH surge in the urine. The strip will develop a pink line in the presence of LH in the urine. You match the pink line to a control pink line on the strip.  (No line appearing means a negative result.) For example, the Easy@Home Ovulation Test Kit will have two lines on the strip: a “C” line as the control, and a “T” line as the test. If the T line is as strong or stronger than the C line, that indicates a positive result. If there is no T line or only a very faint line, it means a negative result.

Easy@Home Ovulation Test Kit 

• Digital Ovulation Kits: The Clearblue Easy Digital Ovulation Test detects the surge in Luteinizing Hormone (LH) for the 24-36 hours before ovulation.   A kit will have 7 disposable strips that you insert into your urine sample, and then in the kit’s detector. The detector thus locates the two days of the month that are most likely for a woman to become pregnant. The digital reader will display a smiley face when it receives a positive reading of high LH in your urine.

Clearblue’s Digital Ovulation Test Display

Clearblue also sells a connected ovulation test system, which hooks up to your cellular device via Bluetooth. It also displays a monthly calendar, and stores data for several consecutive months to correlate data.

• Fertility Monitor: Clearblue makes a fertility monitor that uses a touchscreen for you to enter your monthly data. It comes with test strips that measure LH and estrogen in your urine. Measuring the levels of both hormones gives a window of 6 high fertility days when it is most likely that you’ll be able to conceive (as opposed to knowing only the two peak days, when measuring only LH levels). The monitor displays a calendar for the month and indicates for you the days that are most conducive for conducting a urine test. The device also allows you to record the days of your period and how heavy the bleeding was, for even further accuracy.

Clearblue Fertility Touchscreen Monitor, displaying a calendar of your most fertile days

• Portability: People were pleased with the portability of the ovulation test strips that just display a line to indicate increased LH levels. This way, you don’t have to carry very much with you to get a proper reading. But there are ways in which the results can be skewed: If you drink too much water in the two hours before doing the test, you risk making your urine too diluted. That will lessen the percentage of LH in your urine, and may give a false negative result.

• Combination of Ovulation and Pregnancy Tests: Many companies will sell pregnancy test strips along with ovulation test strips. The pregnancy test strip will detect hCG (=human chorionic gonadotropin), which is produced by the body around 6 days after conception. It’s convenient to have both types of test strips so that you can verify whether your planning to arrive at the right ovulation date was successful.

• Know when to use the test: Since the test strips can be expensive, you don’t want to use them unnecessarily. Most women check with the first urination of the day--there is no point in checking more than once a day. The Pregmate Ovulation Test has a chart to help you determine when is the best day to test. For example: If your cycle is 21 days, you should start testing on Day 5, and so on.

Pregmate Ovulation Test Chart

• How fast to expect a result: Some tests require collecting urine in a container and immersing the test strip. Others, such as the First Response Kit, just require that you put the tip of the test stick in your stream of urine for no more than 5 seconds. The test line should appear within 3-5 minutes.

• The number of strips in a package: Ovulation testing kits will vary in the number of strips available. There can be a range of as many as 10 days during a woman’s cycle, any two of which may be her “peak” time. The First Response Ovulation Plus Pregnancy Test will come with 7 ovulation tests and 1 pregnancy test. That might only suffice for one or two months. Pregmate sells ovulation testing kits with 30 and even 90 test strips!

• Women with irregular periods: We mentioned that ovulation is around 14 days before you start menstruating. But if your period is irregular, it might be hard to figure that out. The Pregmate tests are meant to be used once a day over a five day period (or until you get a positive result), to ensure hitting the right days of your cycle. It’s recommended to take the urine sample from 10 AM to early evening and test it for LH levels--although any urine sample should be valid.

Pregmate, located in Hollywood, Florida, are makers of over-the-counter products for women seeking to become pregnant. Their products include ovulation prediction kits, lubricants, and applicators to increase the chance of pregnancy, vitamins to aid fertility, pregnancy tests, stretch mark treatments, and more.

Clearblue was founded in 1985 by Unilever but is presently owned by SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH. They are innovators in making pregnancy and ovulation tests, being responsible for the first one-minute pregnancy test, the first digital pregnancy test, and the first pregnancy test that could tell also when the woman ovulated.

Easy-at-Home makes personal healthcare solutions, including blood pressure monitors, oximeters, scales, and thermometers. They also make fertility tests in the form of ovulation and pregnancy test strips, by measuring the presence of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone in urine.

First Response makes dietary supplements and lubricants to aid conception, as well as ovulation and pregnancy tests. Their digital ovulation test tells you about whether you’re presently ovulating and allows you to predict which days are fertile days.