OPK questions

[peanutbutter]

Hi everyone,

I'm primarily a lurker, but hopefully you all don't mind answering a quick OPK question for me. This is month 9 of TTC for us, and the first time I've used OPKs. I haven't done it in the past because I work 9-7 most days and definitely can't test at work. Since I still haven't gotten pregnant, I finally caved and bought some CVS brand OPKs to try it out.

The instructions say to test with FMU which I was surprised about because I thought typically you test mid-day, evening or SMU at earliest. I followed the instructions and got a positive test the first day (CD10). This was weird because it was super early for me and I had no other ovulation signs. We proceeded to HIO but I then got negatives the next 3 days  and my temp stayed low so I figured it surged but I didn't ovulate.

Day 14 and 15 I got positives which fit with my other signs. My temp went up on CD 16 and stayed up for CD17 and my other signs definitely match ovulation on CD 15, though I'm still waiting for the third day of high temp to confirm.

My question is that I got positive OPKs on CD 16 and 17 (darker control line than test line!). On the 16th I thought it could be leftover, but CD17 just doesn't seem to make sense.

Could it have to do with my using FMU? I figured if anything, that would mean I might miss the surge and never get a positive, but now I've had a zillion positives!

[frankenboom]

Do you have a chart you can link?

I used to get a lot of positive OPKs - the line ones never really suited me. I had multiple surges and sometimes didn't end up actually ovulating until sometime in the 30s.

I realize this isn't super helpful - but when I was using OPKs I also usually tried to test once with FMU and once in the afternoon/evening after work to see if there was a change or if I could catch a surge. Even if the test said to use FMU.

You may unfortunately just have multiple surges and it kind of sucks because you're not able to rely as much on OPKs.

[Deleted]

I would trust temps over a positive opk; multiple surges and a lengthy surge is possible. I'd suggest continuing to temp and I'd bet your actual O day will become quite clear. Best wishes!

[peanutbutter]

Sept 16, 2015 9:58:12 GMT -5 hippo said:

Sept 16, 2015 8:47:30 GMT -5 peanutbutter said:

My question is that I got positive OPKs on CD 16 and 17 (darker control line than test line!). On the 16th I thought it could be leftover, but CD17 just doesn't seem to make sense.

For an OPK to be considered positive the test line should be the same as or darker than the control line.  If the control line was darker on CD 16 and 17, they were not positive.

Oops! Exactly right- I made a mistake in my original post. The first 2 days of positives the colors of the lines were the same. The second 2 days, the test line was darker than the control line. I just said it backwards.

How do I link my chart? I'm not good at updating with all the secondary signs, but I'm happy to link if it might help.

My temperature usually shows a really clear shift, so I'm not too worried about that. I was more hoping one extra thing might help with the process, but I know nothing is a miracle cure...

Thanks for your advice I'm going to head over to the new OPK thread to try to get more info from that.