FDA OKs Easy-To-Use Ovulation Test

NEW YORK -- The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new saliva ovulation test that can give women who are planning to get pregnant a better idea when they are most fertile.

The Donna Ovulation Predictor works like this: The woman would lick a little plastic disk, put it into a lipstick-size holder, and wait a few minutes.

When the saliva is dry, the tester can look through the lighted microscope lens, and look for a distinctive fern pattern -- a well-known hormonal effect.

"As you approach ovulation the estrogen level in your body increases. This then increases the salt content in the saliva," said Dr. Anita Sadaty, an obstetrician and gynecologist. "So when you place the saliva and it dries on the microscope slide, under the microscope, you can see a crystallized salt pattern. You know it is a fern pattern that appears as you approach ovulation."

In addition to being somewhat more convenient than the urine needed for other ovulation predictors, the Donna gives women a three- to four- day advance notice of ovulation -- an advantage when trying to plan a family.

"The advantage is for women who have irregular cycles," Sadaty said. "Women who have erratic cycles, or lengthily cycles, they really have no idea when they're going to be ovulating."

The Donna is not reliable, though, for women who are taking hormones such as birth control pills or fertility drugs.