Country: 216.87.172.161, North America, US

City: -87.6376 Illinois, United States

Not thrilled with this test. I have been dealing with a short luteal phase so I've been charting my temps for awhile and feel quite confident about when I ovulated. When my period didn't show up at the regular time, 7 dpo, I started getting suspicious. At 13 dpo, I decided it was time and used one of these tests in the evening, figuring that if it can detect pregnancy 5 days before your missed period, I should be good. It came back negative so I decided to follow the instructions and test using first morning urine the next day if my period hadn't shown up over night. That test came back negative also. I decided that I must not be pregnant and that my period would surely show shortly. But it didn't. At 18 dpo, I was getting worried that there was something seriously wrong with me so I started doing some online research and came across a number of women who had poor results from this test. Since the box came with 3 tests, I decided to use the last one and, if my period didn't show by 21 dpo, I'd buy a different test and/or call my doctor. I didn't need to. At 19 dpo, this test showed a very, very faint line. I guess it's possible that I just don't have a high HCG level with this pregnancy, but over 99% accurate from the day of your missed period seems like a stretch to me. I guess someone has to be in that 1%, but I've never had a negative test after my missed period before. I will not buy this brand again.

I cannot swear with certainty that Amberen is helping me, but my life has improved in several ways since I began using it almost three months ago, to include sleeping better, having less pain with my cycles, a MUCH closer proximity to regularity with cycles, with more overall calmness and a sense of well-being. Night sweats were never an issue so I cannot comment on it from that standpoint. I had gone from complete predictability since age 12 through age 52 to harsh unpredictability about a year and a half ago. It has been a nightmare journey including frighteningly heavy cycles that lasted for up to 3 months, then later when regularity was being reestablished, debilitating pain like I have never known before appeared seemingly out of nowhere. There is no way that I am going to use synthetic hormones, so I was scrambling to find natural solutions, and it was during this roller coaster of issues and attempts at getting a tenuous and unsatisfactory handle on things that I began using Amberen. I immediately began feeling better, and relative predictability has again become a part of my life. My body is able to relax, and things keep getting better with time. I have decided to take the Amberen another two months before going off of it instead of the three they suggest. As for the msg issue, well, it is supposedly not the same msg used in cooking, it is a different form of msg. Through use of essential oils and natural products, I have become accustomed to finding that oftentimes, natural products can come in different forms for different uses and can have powerful healing properties associated with them. Perhaps msg is one such natural product. I also find Amberen to be interesting because it has created so much controversy. I have read reviews on several websites, and sometimes it is really attacked, not among users so much as skeptical external reviewers. If you go to a site that rates the product badly, especially if there is an 'ugly' skepticism to the review like someone has an axe to grind, I suggest taking the time to go down and read the reviews written by individual users on those same sites. I have generally found a lot of happy women who are experiencing relief. The owner of one website blasted Amberen in a review, and questioned the credibility of the contributors who said it worked for them, suspecting they were paid by Amberen, after which several of those women blasted her back by saying no, they have nothing to do with selling Amberen, were merely happy users. Its makers claim to be trying to treat the source of problems associated with menopause by reintroducing sensitivity in the body instead of merely relieving symptoms, an admirable goal if nothing else. My imaginings are that some of the smears out there are coming from competitors who claim to be unbiased but are really favoring a particular product. For some women it apparently does nothing, but I haven't come across any reviews claiming dangerous side effects. There do not appear to be any unforeseen monsters in the closet with this product, whereas other products can be flat out dangerous, an example being using tonic water for restless leg syndrome. Drinking tonic water every day to relieve leg and other body cramping can be VERY HELPFUL, but there are really scary monsters in the tonic water/quinine closet when it comes to constant daily use, like waking up months later with no liver or kidney function, or serious heart problems. Since Amberen doesn't appear to be one of those products, why is the skepticism over it so emotionally charged? That is what I want to know. For me, it works, and I am not worried about bad side effects down the road.