Inito is a smartphone-connected fertility monitor that measures four reproductive hormones from a single urine test strip, then charts your results in an app to identify your fertile window and confirm ovulation. Using it correctly comes down to timing your tests, dipping the strips properly, and understanding what the hormone curves on your chart actually mean.
What Inito Measures and Why It Matters
Most at-home ovulation tests only detect one hormone, the LH surge that signals ovulation is approaching. Inito tracks four: estrogen (measured as its urinary form, E3G), LH, FSH, and PdG, which is the urinary form of progesterone. Together, these hormones paint a more complete picture of your cycle than a single positive or negative result ever could.
Here’s what each one tells you. Estrogen rises in the days before ovulation, thickening the uterine lining and signaling that your body is preparing to release an egg. This rise is what opens your fertile window. LH then surges sharply, typically triggering ovulation within 24 to 36 hours. FSH plays a supporting role in egg maturation and helps Inito refine its predictions. After ovulation, PdG climbs as the corpus luteum (the structure left behind after the egg is released) produces progesterone to support a potential pregnancy. A consistent PdG rise over three consecutive days, generally above 5 micrograms per milliliter in urine, is what confirms ovulation actually happened.
A 2023 validation study published in Scientific Reports found that Inito’s hormone readings correlated extremely closely with standard laboratory methods, with r-squared values of 0.96 for estrogen, 0.99 for PdG, and 0.99 for LH. In practical terms, the numbers you see on the app closely reflect what a lab test would show.
Setting Up the Monitor and App
Inito consists of two physical components: a small reader that plugs into your smartphone and disposable test strips. When you first download the Inito app, it asks for basic cycle information like your average cycle length and the first day of your last period. The app uses this to calculate when you should start testing each cycle. If you aren’t sure about your cycle length, enter your best estimate. The app adjusts its predictions as it collects data from your actual hormone levels over subsequent cycles.
How to Run a Test
The app tells you which days to test and will send a reminder notification. For best results, test with your first morning urine, since hormone concentrations are most consistent after several hours without drinking fluids. Collect urine in a clean cup rather than holding the strip in your stream, which makes it easier to control the dip.
Dip the absorbent end of the test strip into the urine for 15 seconds. Pull it out, lay it flat on a clean surface, and wait five minutes. This wait time lets the chemical reactions on the strip fully develop. Rushing this step can give you an inaccurate reading.
After five minutes, insert the strip into the Inito reader, which is already plugged into your phone. The reader uses your phone’s camera to scan the strip, and the app processes the results within seconds. You’ll see your actual hormone values plotted on a chart rather than just a “positive” or “negative” result.
Reading Your Hormone Chart
The app builds a hormone curve across your cycle, plotting each day’s estrogen, LH, FSH, and PdG values on a single timeline. Early in your cycle, you’ll see relatively low, flat lines. As you approach ovulation, estrogen starts climbing. The app uses this rise to flag the start of your fertile window, labeling certain days as “high” fertility.
When LH surges, the app marks “peak” fertility. This is your most fertile day and typically the best time for intercourse if you’re trying to conceive. After the surge passes, the app watches for PdG to rise. Once it sees that consistent upward trend across several days, it labels ovulation as “confirmed.” This confirmation step is what sets Inito apart from standard ovulation predictor kits. An LH surge doesn’t guarantee an egg was actually released. The PdG rise does.
Over multiple cycles, the chart also helps you spot patterns. You can see whether your luteal phase (the stretch between ovulation and your next period) is consistently long enough to support implantation, whether your estrogen rises are strong, or whether your PdG plateau holds steady. A short luteal phase or weak PdG rise, for example, might be worth discussing with a healthcare provider.
How Many Strips You’ll Use Per Cycle
The app determines your testing schedule based on your cycle data. Most users test on roughly 10 to 15 days per cycle, though this varies. Early in the follicular phase and late in the luteal phase, no testing is needed because the hormone shifts that matter haven’t started or have already been captured. The app concentrates your testing around the expected fertile window and the days following ovulation when PdG confirmation matters most.
Using Inito With Irregular Cycles
If your cycles vary significantly in length, whether from PCOS, stress, breastfeeding, or coming off hormonal birth control, Inito can still work, but it requires more testing days. With unpredictable cycles, you can’t rely on calendar-based predictions alone. The monitor compensates by tracking your actual hormone levels rather than assuming ovulation will fall on a particular day.
Inito uses estrogen, LH, and FSH together to pinpoint fertile days even when ovulation comes earlier or later than expected. Importantly, it also tells you whether ovulation happened at all. Getting a period each cycle doesn’t guarantee you ovulated. Anovulatory cycles, where no egg is released, still produce a bleed but won’t show the characteristic PdG rise. If Inito shows cycle after cycle without confirmed ovulation, that’s a meaningful data point to bring to a doctor.
The app also tracks hormone patterns across cycles, which can reveal issues like consistently late ovulation or a luteal phase that’s too short. For someone with irregular cycles, this longitudinal view is often more useful than any single test result.
Tips for Accurate Results
Most test errors come down to a few avoidable mistakes. First, stick to first morning urine. Testing later in the day after you’ve been drinking water can dilute hormone concentrations and flatten your readings. Second, time the dip carefully. Fifteen seconds in the urine is the target. Over-dipping or under-dipping can affect how the chemicals on the strip react. Third, respect the full five-minute development time before scanning. Scanning too early is the most common cause of unreliable readings.
Store your test strips in their sealed pouch until you’re ready to use them. Humidity and heat degrade the reagents. Don’t use strips past their expiration date. If the app flags a result as invalid, discard that strip and retest with a new one the following morning rather than immediately retesting, since your urine composition won’t have changed meaningfully within minutes.
Keep the reader’s lens clean. Since it relies on your phone’s camera to optically read the strip, smudges or residue on the reader can interfere. A quick wipe with a dry cloth before each scan takes care of this.
What Inito Won’t Tell You
Inito is designed to track ovulation and fertility window timing. It does not function as a pregnancy test, though some users watch for sustained high PdG levels as an early clue. It also doesn’t diagnose conditions like PCOS or endometriosis, even though the hormone data it collects can surface patterns worth investigating. Think of it as a detailed tracking tool that gives you and your healthcare provider better data to work with, not a diagnostic device on its own.