Fall pregnant or money back

Product guarantees refund if couples don't conceive.

15:45 07 August 2009

Money back guarantees have been around almost as long as marketing departments, but scarcely do they offer such a precious thing as life itself.

Cambridge Temperature Concepts Ltd (CTC) has teamed their new ovulation detector with the controversial promise of a refund if the users don't fall pregnant within 12 months.

Costing £495, DuoFertility aims to give hope to those having difficulty in conceiving naturally by telling them when the woman is at her most fertile with 99% accuracy.

Included in the summer promotion is also the promise of "unlimited professional support" from their team of in-house fertility experts.

However, the ethics of such a promotion could be called into question.

DuoFertility offers hope to couples struggling to get pregnant

The manufacturer's confidence in the product, which was created by Cambridge University PhD students, came after recent research showed promising results.

Out of 50 couples who had previously experienced difficulty in conceiving, seven fell pregnant after trailling the DuoFertility device.

Susanne Knopfler, a member of the CTC marketing team, said: " We are very proud of this as all these couples had been trying for some time and been through IVF and other treatments."

The new product, which is hailed as a revolutionary way to test for fertility, works by alerting women to the tiny half-degree temperature rise that occurs at the time of ovulation - when they are most likely to conceive.

Up to 20,000 temperature readings are taken each night (the ideal time to measure the body's base temperature) by a tiny patch to identify the temperature spike, which can otherwise be easily missed.

These readings are then wirelessly transferred back to the base unit which tells the wearer whether they have ovulated in the last two days or are likely to in the next six.

Chief scientific officer at CTC, Dr Oriane Chausiaux, said: "Other ways of detecting ovulation require women to test a daily urine sample to identify hormonal changes, or to wake up very early every morning and measure and manually record their body temperature.

"The results are not very accurate, and it is terribly inconvenient. DuoFertility is more accurate, and eliminates all the fuss."