OPK Question (again)

[hoosiermama76]

Looks like this is going to be another fun month. Last month I must have missed my FW since I got those nine days of flashing smileys right before AF, and I only had a 24 day cycle, which is strange for me. Today, I'm CD8 and I wanted to start earlier because of my shorter cycle. I took two of the same brand, the first one was positive, and the second one negative. I took a First Response brand and it was negative. Don't want to miss the FW but don't want to have sex every day for the next however long either. WWYD, and anyone else see these kind of deviations?

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 17:53:36 GMT -5 W said:

I don't know your history.. are you temping?

This is my first month temping, and I'm only on day 8. So far, I'm the same between 97.0 and 97.1 each day and don't see a pattern yet. Thanks for responding!

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 18:17:42 GMT -5 W said:

Oct 29, 2016 18:13:24 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

This is my first month temping, and I'm only on day 8. So far, I'm the same between 97.0 and 97.1 each day and don't see a pattern yet. Thanks for responding!

I would just try for EOD sex until you see the connection between the OPKs and temping.

Good plan!

[hoosiermama76]

W Dumb question, but if I just began temping, I wouldn't really see a change in my temperature until after I already ovulated, right? I'm so new to

[obscurereference]

What time are you doing the OPKs? I would try the cheap ones. I could never get a true positive on any OPK that said to use morning pee. I can always get a positive on the cheapies that recommend afternoon pee.

[Rama]

Oct 29, 2016 18:41:07 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

W Dumb question, but if I just began temping, I wouldn't really see a change in my temperature until after I already ovulated, right? I'm so new to

You are correct.

The benefit of temping in conjuction with OPKs is seeing if your surge detected resulted in ovulation or not.

Not a dumb question. :)

[Rama]

Oct 29, 2016 19:04:45 GMT -5 @samrs22 said:

We should have a weekly thread called "charting.. WTF am I doing ? " I'm going to start charting after my appointment,( if everything comes back ok. This is me thinking positive )

I think this might be a good thing to add to the WTO/TWW threads. A weekly thread like this couldn't really stand up to the test of time, because once you know the stuff, you wouldn't have any new questions.

Main board posts like this one are good, too. :) We don't need to file and shuffle everything off of the board. All the check in and randoms get boring anyway.

[thechickencoop]

Yea I have no experience with those OPKs but with wondfos it's hit or miss for me. Temping at cd8 isn't going to show you anything, you'll hopefully see a high shift in temps once you O.

I'd just KOKO with the opks, temping, and HIO EOD for like a week or so to cover your bases. Are your cycles normally on the shorter side (24 days ish?) Or was that new?

And phew holy acronyms.

[LadyNymeria]

Are those the flashing smile advanced ones? Or the regular digitals?

Were both handles brand new? Or was one carryover from last cycle? If either was carryover, did you ever get a positive on it last cycle?

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 19:24:48 GMT -5 obscurereference said:

What time are you doing the OPKs? I would try the cheap ones. I could never get a true positive on any OPK that said to use morning pee. I can always get a positive on the cheapies that recommend afternoon pee.

Thanks @obscurerefernce I am doing them in the afternoon/early evening and just ordered wondfo that should be here tomorrow. And this is probably TMI, but we had a sexual malfunction today anyway. LOL. I was cooking dinner and asked my DH to tell me when he was ready. I just wasn't into it today (which is pretty rare), and there was some miscommunication. I was too late. We will try tomorrow and I'll retest. At this point, I am kind of fine with going to a RE if we don't get pregnant by January so we can figure out what is going on. I'm forty so that will be seven months on our own if nothing works this cycle. I so appreciate your knowledge here. I had sex once with our DD when I was 37, so this is all new to me. It's probably karma biting me in the ass.

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 19:26:58 GMT -5 Rama said:

Oct 29, 2016 18:41:07 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

W Dumb question, but if I just began temping, I wouldn't really see a change in my temperature until after I already ovulated, right? I'm so new to

You are correct.

The benefit of temping in conjuction with OPKs is seeing if your surge detected resulted in ovulation or not.

Not a dumb question.

Rama Thank you. That makes sense.

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 20:39:59 GMT -5 thechickencoop said:

Yea I have no experience with those OPKs but with wondfos it's hit or miss for me. Temping at cd8 isn't going to show you anything, you'll hopefully see a high shift in temps once you O.

I'd just KOKO with the opks, temping, and HIO EOD for like a week or so to cover your bases. Are your cycles normally on the shorter side (24 days ish?) Or was that new?

And phew holy acronyms.

thechickencoop

Acronym city. That was awesome:-)

I am going to take your advice and just cover my bases:)

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 21:35:57 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Are those the flashing smile advanced ones? Or the regular digitals?

Were both handles brand new? Or was one carryover from last cycle? If either was carryover, did you ever get a positive on it last cycle?

LadyNymeria The positive one was a never used positive one. The negative one was last cycle's.

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 29, 2016 22:14:43 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

Oct 29, 2016 21:35:57 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Are those the flashing smile advanced ones? Or the regular digitals?

Were both handles brand new? Or was one carryover from last cycle? If either was carryover, did you ever get a positive on it last cycle?

LadyNymeria The positive one was a never used positive one. The negative one was last cycle's.

Oh, and it was a the advanced one with the flashing 😊

[LadyNymeria]

Oct 29, 2016 23:30:56 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

Oct 29, 2016 22:14:43 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

LadyNymeria The positive one was a never used positive one. The negative one was last cycle's.

Oh, and it was a the advanced one with the flashing 😊

I only used the non-flashing "regular" (not advanced) ones but I think they work similarly so this should still apply. Those digital tests need to be used early enough in a cycle to detect rising hormones. Those handles monitor hormone levels and give you positive or negative results based on the trend in hormones. If your cycle is or has been less than 28 days, starting the OPKs on day 8 may not be early enough. The handles need enough days of measuring hormones prior to ovulation in order to give accurate results when ovulation approaches.

An immediate positive seems to indicate either that handle isn't working, or it believes your LH is already high enough to indicate potential ovulation approaching.

If you like using the digitals, the regular (non-advanced) ones worked great for me. They basically work like the cheaper tests but gives you the no smile/smile digital results rather than you deciding if a test line is dark enough to be considered a positive.

I've heard of a decent number of people having trouble getting good results with the advanced version since that tries to track estradiol too.

[thechickencoop]

Oct 30, 2016 6:29:55 GMT -5 @pineappleoranges said:

is it your husband that has pain when he ejaculates? If so I would go to the RE now.

ETA: I see that it is. If your cycles are making it harder to pinpoint ovulation I would go now. instead of him feeling pain and still wasting a cycle

Ooooooh I was like, dafaq is she talking about, but I went back and read.

Yea, if your H's injury is a problem then I would 100% head to the RE asap. Right now you're mostly just guessing. That's a lot of extra sex for a guy who has pain during it. The RE will be able to monitor your follies so you KNOW when youre ovulating so less stress/pain/guessing for your H. :/

I'm sorry about your H's injury; that has to be stressful.

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 30, 2016 6:29:55 GMT -5 @pineappleoranges said:

is it your husband that has pain when he ejaculates? If so I would go to the RE now.

ETA: I see that it is. If your cycles are making it harder to pinpoint ovulation I would go now. instead of him feeling pain and still wasting a cycle

@pineappleoranges I thought that too, but he wants to wait until January since we would get insurance coverage and all we would pay before January would go towards the out of pocket max.

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 30, 2016 7:52:07 GMT -5 thechickencoop said:

Oct 30, 2016 6:29:55 GMT -5 @pineappleoranges said:

is it your husband that has pain when he ejaculates? If so I would go to the RE now.

ETA: I see that it is. If your cycles are making it harder to pinpoint ovulation I would go now. instead of him feeling pain and still wasting a cycle

Ooooooh I was like, dafaq is she talking about, but I went back and read.

Yea, if your H's injury is a problem then I would 100% head to the RE asap. Right now you're mostly just guessing. That's a lot of extra sex for a guy who has pain during it. The RE will be able to monitor your follies so you KNOW when youre ovulating so less stress/pain/guessing for your H. :/

I'm sorry about your H's injury; that has to be stressful.

thechickencoop yeah, that is what I wanted to do, but he wants to give it longer and see how we do since we conceived so easily last time and since any money we pay towards our out of pocket max would be wasted before January ( we have insurance for Re), but I'm going to call after this cycle to make an appointment (since I would qualify for insurance then).

[hoosiermama76]

Oct 30, 2016 1:41:13 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Oct 29, 2016 23:30:56 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

Oh, and it was a the advanced one with the flashing 😊

I only used the non-flashing "regular" (not advanced) ones but I think they work similarly so this should still apply. Those digital tests need to be used early enough in a cycle to detect rising hormones. Those handles monitor hormone levels and give you positive or negative results based on the trend in hormones. If your cycle is or has been less than 28 days, starting the OPKs on day 8 may not be early enough. The handles need enough days of measuring hormones prior to ovulation in order to give accurate results when ovulation approaches.

An immediate positive seems to indicate either that handle isn't working, or it believes your LH is already high enough to indicate potential ovulation approaching.

If you like using the digitals, the regular (non-advanced) ones worked great for me. They basically work like the cheaper tests but gives you the no smile/smile digital results rather than you deciding if a test line is dark enough to be considered a positive.

I've heard of a decent number of people having trouble getting good results with the advanced version since that tries to track estradiol too.

LadyNymeria I will try that. I am going to try just the cheapies to see if there is an increase.

[mayflowers]

Oct 30, 2016 1:41:13 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Oct 29, 2016 23:30:56 GMT -5 hoosiermama76 said:

Oh, and it was a the advanced one with the flashing 😊

I only used the non-flashing "regular" (not advanced) ones but I think they work similarly so this should still apply. Those digital tests need to be used early enough in a cycle to detect rising hormones. Those handles monitor hormone levels and give you positive or negative results based on the trend in hormones. If your cycle is or has been less than 28 days, starting the OPKs on day 8 may not be early enough. The handles need enough days of measuring hormones prior to ovulation in order to give accurate results when ovulation approaches.

An immediate positive seems to indicate either that handle isn't working, or it believes your LH is already high enough to indicate potential ovulation approaching.

If you like using the digitals, the regular (non-advanced) ones worked great for me. They basically work like the cheaper tests but gives you the no smile/smile digital results rather than you deciding if a test line is dark enough to be considered a positive.

I've heard of a decent number of people having trouble getting good results with the advanced version since that tries to track estradiol too.

Can you go more into what people struggled with with the advanced? Did they not get positives at all? Or something else?

[hoosiermama76]

Update: got my Wondfos and purchased a First Response OPK. Also retested on the advanced digital that said low yesterday. All said no. So, since I can't retest on the other wand that said yes since the smile won't go away, I'm going to just keep testing with the wondfos until we HIO and check CM. Thanks for the help/advice.

[Rama]

Oct 30, 2016 14:47:00 GMT -5 mayflowers said:

Oct 30, 2016 1:41:13 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

I only used the non-flashing "regular" (not advanced) ones but I think they work similarly so this should still apply. Those digital tests need to be used early enough in a cycle to detect rising hormones. Those handles monitor hormone levels and give you positive or negative results based on the trend in hormones. If your cycle is or has been less than 28 days, starting the OPKs on day 8 may not be early enough. The handles need enough days of measuring hormones prior to ovulation in order to give accurate results when ovulation approaches.

An immediate positive seems to indicate either that handle isn't working, or it believes your LH is already high enough to indicate potential ovulation approaching.

If you like using the digitals, the regular (non-advanced) ones worked great for me. They basically work like the cheaper tests but gives you the no smile/smile digital results rather than you deciding if a test line is dark enough to be considered a positive.

I've heard of a decent number of people having trouble getting good results with the advanced version since that tries to track estradiol too.

Can you go more into what people struggled with with the advanced? Did they not get positives at all? Or something else?

A lot of people never get the solid smiley. A lot of people get several days (I've seen up to 9) of solid smileys.

My RE actually highly recommends AGAINST the CBAD OPKs because they generally give less certain information/are more confusing than the CBD OPKs.

[mayflowers]

Thanks Rama!

[LadyNymeria]

Oct 30, 2016 15:22:49 GMT -5 mayflowers said:

Thanks Rama!

Rama covered it. That's what I had heard about the advanced ones as well.

[gwendarling]

Oct 30, 2016 15:22:49 GMT -5 mayflowers said:

Thanks Rama!

I just wanted to share as I just went through OPK confusion myself this weekend, the clear blue advanced digis are best with FMU and at same time everyday as it collects data and measures hormone levels vs previous days - so, when I started testing on cd12, much later in my cycle than last cycle, it gave me a low fertility read - and the next morning, because my estradiol hormone was already high, it gave me another low fertility reading at cd13 even though I know I'm always ovulating around cd13/14.

The regular clearblue digitals should be used with afternoon urine as LH builds up a bit more throughout the day so I tested with a regular clear blue digital this morning at 11 and got a negative and then got a positive at 6pm - I'm guessing a clear blue advanced digital test tomorrow morningwill show a smiley face.

Anyways I think I'm done with the advanced opks now as I feel like it just gave me unnecessary anxiety over the whole thing. Good luck!

[mayflowers]

gwendarling thanks so much.

This is my 3rd month using CB advanced (month 8 TTC) and the first 2 months I went from O to solid smiley and this month I had 1 O and this is day 2 of flashing smiley. So that makes sense maybe I started too late and the hormone was already up (I get a + for LH on like day 10/11 lately and today is day 11).

As far as the testing with FMU - if I test in the PM for LH is it not a valid result? My surge is typically in the PM based on prior negative/positives with wondfo.

[gwendarling]

Oct 31, 2016 7:41:40 GMT -5 mayflowers said:

gwendarling thanks so much.

This is my 3rd month using CB advanced (month 8 TTC) and the first 2 months I went from O to solid smiley and this month I had 1 O and this is day 2 of flashing smiley. So that makes sense maybe I started too late and the hormone was already up (I get a + for LH on like day 10/11 lately and today is day 11).

As far as the testing with FMU - if I test in the PM for LH is it not a valid result? My surge is typically in the PM based on prior negative/positives with wondfo.

I'm not sure about PM testing with clearblue advanced digital - I would assume you're covered so long as you're testing at the same time everyday.

I think I surge in PM, too, which is why I didn't get anything on my clearblue advanced yesterday and then got a smiley face at 6pm with the reg clearblue digi. As predicted in a previous post, I got a smiley face on the advanced digital OPK this morning - so basically my surge started sometime yesterday during the day and into this morning.

[Rama]

Fun? TTC factoid I read somewhere (FF maybe?): Apparently most LH surges do in fact happen overnight! I'm not sure why this is, though. But if you think you're surging at 2am, you could very well be correct!

That said, I think the manufacturers have probably taken into account this weird phenomenon, if it's actually a thing that's worth accounting for. I would continue to use your OPKs as directed by the instructions included. Most will likely have you test in the morning. Trust that they've been doing what they're intended to do, as directed. :)

[gwendarling]

Oct 31, 2016 13:08:18 GMT -5 Rama said:

Fun? TTC factoid I read somewhere (FF maybe?): Apparently most LH surges do in fact happen overnight! I'm not sure why this is, though. But if you think you're surging at 2am, you could very well be correct!

That said, I think the manufacturers have probably taken into account this weird phenomenon, if it's actually a thing that's worth accounting for. I would continue to use your OPKs as directed by the instructions included. Most will likely have you test in the morning. Trust that they've been doing what they're intended to do, as directed.

The clearblue digitals recommend testing any time of the day, the same time everyday.

[Rama]

Oct 31, 2016 13:15:47 GMT -5 gwendarling said:

Oct 31, 2016 13:08:18 GMT -5 Rama said:

Fun? TTC factoid I read somewhere (FF maybe?): Apparently most LH surges do in fact happen overnight! I'm not sure why this is, though. But if you think you're surging at 2am, you could very well be correct!

That said, I think the manufacturers have probably taken into account this weird phenomenon, if it's actually a thing that's worth accounting for. I would continue to use your OPKs as directed by the instructions included. Most will likely have you test in the morning. Trust that they've been doing what they're intended to do, as directed. :)

The clearblue digitals recommend testing any time of the day, the same time everyday.

Yup, that's included with the "as directed" line. :) So you're good.

I was speaking to anyone that may have not necessarily read their instructions (you'd be surprised how many don't!) or anyone worried about using FMU/SMU when they might be surging at night. Follow the instructions. It's not there to trick ya.