NZ inventor launches $1000 ovulation detector in Britain

The DuoFertility reader and sensor. Its inventor, Dr Shamus Husheer, says it is 99 per cent accurate at indicating the most fertile days in woman's monthly menstrual cycle. Photo / Supplied

A New Zealand inventor has launched a hi-tech start-up in England by offering couples a special deal - pregnancy in 12 months or their money back.

Dr Shamus Husheer is the inventor of the technology behind the DuoFertility ovulation detector, which is selling for £495 (NZ$1257) apiece, the Daily Mail reported.

The unusual promotional offer expires on September 20.

The detector indicates a woman's most fertile days in her monthly menstrual cycle with 99 per cent accuracy, Dr Husheer claims.

It is a tiny thermometer, the size of a $1 coin, in the form of a patch that can be worn under the arm, which alerts the woman when her temperature rises half a degree Celsius as a result of ovulation.

Women are most fertile on the day of the temperature spike and on the few days preceding it.

The DuoFertility takes 20,000 readings at night during sleep, making it far more accurate than other existing methods.

A wireless hand-held reader tells a wearer whether she has ovulated in the last two days. If she is going to be fertile in the next six days a green light shows on the sensor.

If she conceives, the green light stays on because the body's temperature remains high due to increased hormone levels.

Dr Husheer moved to Britain to study for a doctorate in nuclear and structural chemistry.

While employed at the European Sychrotron Radiation Facility in France, he read an article about new battery technology, and started work on a prototype of his device.

"The first one was the size of a shoebox," he said.

"The poor girls who tested it for us had to have this thing strapped to them."

His interest in fertility was personal, he told the Cambridge Evening News.

"I had a long-term partner in New Zealand who didn't like taking the (contraception) pill - 30 per cent of women react badly to it, weight gain, depression, risk aversion, some of the early signs of pregnancy, because that's what the pill does to the body.

"We tried every other form of contraception and found that they all suck. Being a scientist, I was interested in what could be done."

- NZPA