Fertility Nitty Gritty: Ava Bracelet Review

Ava Bracelet

 I stumbled upon an advertisement for a new technology a few years ago: an Ava Bracelet, which was purported to be a wearable fertility tracking technology. It was still in it’s pre-ordering stage, and it was kind of spendy. I read up on the research behind it, and considered all the marketing stuff: videos and explanations for how it worked.

The major reason it drew me in: simplicity.

Fertility challenges often take over your life in a hot hurry. You don’t even realize it’s happened (like the frog in the pot analogy), and soon your whole life seems to revolve around taking pre-natals, false unicorn root (yes, that’s a thing), and taking your Basal Body Temperature every morning. It gets exhausting and time-consuming. But the Ava bracelet was supposed to make all that a little easier, because it’s a wearable tech.

I loved the idea of strapping on the watch-like apparatus, wearing it while I slept, and then syncing it with my phone to collect data that would tell me when I should ovulate. It eliminated the whole “did-I-take-my-temp-at-the-right-time” and “what-if-it-wasn’t-accurate” drama.

So I chatted with my hubs and we decided it was worth a try. I pre-ordered and waited anxiously to get the notification that my Ava shipped.

Fast forward to after’s Ava’s arrival:

I got Ava, started wearing it, and started tracking my cycles. I wore it from the time I got it until I conceived in the summer of 2017, and here are the pros for me:

1.     It’s super easy to use.

2.     The app does all the data tracking/charting/collecting for me, and notifies me when I’m in my fertile window.

3.     I was an “early adopter” of Ava, which meant that I was pulled into an Ava community via Facebook to give feedback on the bracelet. That TTC community was such a great support for me during our fertility journey, plus I loved that Ava was actively seeking out input from real users.

Here’s a few cons:

1.     It’s expensive. Like most new technology, the initial cost is high.

2.     It’s not a magic bullet. I’m not sure this is a “con” exactly, but most of the dissatisfied reviews I have read or come across seem to have this as an underlying theme. Because the user paid a lot of money and didn’t immediately get pregnant, somehow the tech must be faulty. But the good (and bad) news about Ava is that it is, ultimately, just a tool to have in your toolbox for conception.

3.     After becoming pregnant, I found Ava to be a little anxiety inducing, because the temp tracking often dips, and since the temp variation takes place in such a small increment, it can often look like a lot when, in reality, it’s only a tiny drop. But since the chart looks like major change, old-hat BBT charters like me look at the decline and feel a jolt of panic over a possible miscarriage.

Wearable Tech: Ava reads several biometrical
components while you sleep, using them to
calculate your fertile window. 

So here’s my assessment: Ava is an awesome product that can be a really useful tool for those of us that are “reproductively challenged” (to borrow a famous, favorite character). Like any new tech, if you’re going to take the plunge, I think it’s important to remember two major facts: first, that early adopting tech is often expensive; and second, there is no technology that is a magic fix for fertility issues.

I wish I could promise that if you get an Ava and use it, you will conceive. Sadly, that’s just not true. But Ava can help you narrow in on your fertile window, which can dramatically improve your chances of conception. And the simple-to-use concept can also cut down on TTC stress that so many women experience when they spend so much time focused on trying to make a baby.