Busy career women will welcome the Donna and similar devices like the TCI Ovulation Tester, which gained FDA approval in January. (The Donna, now available at thedonna.com, is the original, sold abroad since 1993.) The new saliva tests can indicate ovulation as many as four days in advance and can be used at several different times during the day. And, as the FDA has noted, they’re a lot less messy.
Essentially mini-microscopes with reusable slides, the testers are the size of a lipstick tube. All women have to do is lick the slides, let them dry, stick them in the slot and take a look. If they see a “ferning pattern”–like spiderwebs or fossilized plants–they’re looking at their own body salts, which rise dramatically around the time of ovulation. A denser pattern indicates peak fertility; if ovulation isn’t occurring, the slides will show blurry dots. (You can use a kid’s microscope to get the same result, though it won’t fit in your purse.) The devices are compatible with fertility drugs, which cause the formation of a more intense ferning pattern. And since they last for a year and cost $60, they’re also compatible with wallets. If you’re going to try using the rhythm method, the Donna can also be of service as a birth-control aid, as women abroad have found out. But Weinstein, who worries about “everybody in America suing everybody else,” isn’t marketing them for that.
