'Your money back if you're not pregnant in 12 months': UK firm's vow as it unveils 'sat-nav of the fertility world'



Women holds the DuoFertility reader which monitors her body temperature

A handheld fertility device is as effective as IVF for many couples, it has been claimed.

The DuoFertility system, developed by former students of Cambridge University, measures variations in body temperature to identify when a woman is most fertile.

The £495 device, dubbed the ‘sat-nav of the fertility world’, is claimed to be statistically as good as IVF.



Its developers, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, even promise to give couples their money back if they are not pregnant within 12 months of using the gadget.

DuoFertility combines a small sensor that fits under the arm and a hand-held reader that together can measure body temperature 20,000 times during the night to identify when a woman is at her most fertile.

It stores the data which is then downloaded at the touch of a button to the reader and CTC claims it is 99 per cent accurate.

Couples trying to conceive can then check their fertility up to a week ahead and get their data analysed by a team of CTC fertility experts. The data also helps highlight any medical problems that doctors can miss in women trying for a baby.

The news was delivered this week in Moscow to the World Association of Reproductive Medicine by Dr Oriane Chausiaux, chief scientific officer for DuoFertility.

She told the conference how the DuoFertility programme of research resulted in a pregnancy success rate of 19.5 per cent after six months, which is as effective as IVF.

Dr Shamus Husheer, the inventor of DuoFertility, said: ‘We are delighted that Oriane has been given the opportunity to present our significant findings at this event.

‘What we now know, as a result of our work, is that for certain causes of infertility, DuoFertility is as effective as IVF. Clearly there are some infertility issues where the use of the device is unable to aid pregnancy, such as a complete lack of sperm.

‘However, for a range of common causes such as moderate male factors, cycle irregularity and secondary or unexplained infertility, our monitoring device is achieving great results.’



The gadget measures a woman's body temperature 20,000 times a day and is said to be extremely accurate

Raj Mathur, Consultant in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge says: ‘It has been recognised for a long time that women experience a small rise in body temperature that occurs around the time they release an egg from the ovary.

‘However, present techniques for recording this do not appear to be of clinical value.

‘The Reproductive Medicine Department at Addenbrookes Hospital is examining whether body temperature measurements taken by the Duo Fertility sensor are able to identify cycles where ovulation occurs.’

Duo Fertility, which is sold online and not available on the NHS or High Street, is the only monitor on the market that allows users to enter in other personal fertility parameters, such as period length, the quality of cervical mucus or the position of you cervix.

Studies have shown that including this information increased the accuracy of detecting fertile days by 99.7 per cent.

Andrew Sharkey PhD, Associate lecturer, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge said: ‘There is a big social and clinical need for a method to predict ovulation and hence potential fertility.

‘The concept seems sound- ie measuring temperature rise as a surrogate for the hormonal changes induced at around the time of ovulation. The limited data I have seen suggests that it is robust, simple to use and non-invasive and relatively cheap.’