OPk's

Hey Ladies. I guess I'm a bit confused with OPK tests. I had some stringy/thick/pink discharge (sorry) and it was day 13 of my cycle so I decided to take an OPK test. I wasnt going to test for a few more days because my cycle is usually 30-32 days long. Anyway, I had a LH surge but the line wasnt quite as dark as the test line. 4 hours later i tested again and it was as dark as the test line. This am tested again and no line. SO my question is, when you get the surge that shows up dark, and then get your neg does that mean ovulation has taken place? Does the LH surge only end once the egg has been released? I don't know if i would have had an LH surge the day prior to testing too, but just more faint. Does this mean that it my case I ovulate less than 24 hrs from my pos OPK test? Sorry if this has been answered here before! It's my first time testing. With my sons we just DTD every other day through my whole cycle, so i had no real idea when I ovulated.

 Hi  the OPK's only pick up the surge, you generally ovulate between 12 - 36 hrs after but everyone is different. Its perfectly normally for Opks tests to disappear after a few hrs sometimes mine are 8hrs and last month I had 3 days worth of +opk's. Temping is the best way to know that you have actually ovulated. 

so once the LH surge ends, ovulation has taken place right? I thought the LH surge was to get your follicle to release the egg....

 Stick with when you get your first dark line on the opk.  Just because you get a negative opk after a positive one doesn't mean that you've ovulated - you'll get a temperature spike the morning after you ovulate.  So, it's best to chart for a few cycles to see how far from your first real +opk you're actually ovulating.  For example, I usually ovulate more like 36 hours after my +opk.  I get the +opk on the evening of day 14, and ovulate on day 16, temperature spike on day 17.  So, opk's are a handy warning that you're coming up on your ovulation, but the best thing to do is chart your bbm temperatures first thing in the morning every day for a few cycles.  Fertility Friend and other sites are handy for recording your temperatures and helping you figure out when you ovulated.  Hopefully, you'll find a pattern for yourself and be able to pinpoint your O.

so once the LH surge ends, ovulation has taken place right? I thought the LH surge was to get your follicle to release the egg....

sorry....didn't mean to post that twice! thanks for the help. I am still up a lot with DS #2 so i'm not sure how accurate my temping will be. I might just have to do the first opk +24-36 hrs. I was going to check my cm mucus too as a method, but I had hardly any this month!

For most, your lh surge will end BEFORE ovulation has taken place. But just because you are getting say a long (2-3 day) lh surge, which is soooo uncommon, doesn't mean you can't ovulate within that time frame too.

Hi LTB, I use the opk strips last month and this month and it took a while to get a feel for them.. At times I wpuld think try were negative and times positive.. But after a lot of reading online I found that sometimes a bold, dark line like the contil line wpuld appear on half or just to one side of the test line and that's actually a negative and it took a good month to get used to reading them. A big help was to set an actual timer and check it instead of guessing at the time. This mo th I bought a digital and I'm SO glad I did! Anyway don't give up!

Wow, I guess it's more complicated than I thought! I had two positives one day, the second darker, then the next morning a very very faint line. I stopped testing because I figured my LH surge was over and that I had ovulated or was about to. Hmmm.....I cant rely on my CM and my temps wont be accurate either yet. We will be sleep training my DS #2 this week as I can't get up with him anymore! He mostly just wants the soother back in, but even that is disrupting both of us. I hope it goes well and I can get some solid sleep!

Ok ladies, now I'm REALLY confused.... SO I've had the EWCM for 2 days now...stringy, stretchy, clear etc. BUT I already had my LH surge last monday and tues. I took another OPK just now and it came up with two lines right away. WTH? Can you have an LH surge and then not ovulate...then have another one later?? So confused!!! ps. I haven't been charting my temp because DS 2 is up a million times a night still....still haven't buckled down and started sleep training yet

I'm so confused. I did a google search. I guess there are a few scenerios that could have happened. 1. I had an LH surge that didn't cause ovulation. Then I had another that will? 2. That I actually am ovulating twice 3.PCOS can cause this. I'd know if I had this right? 4. That I'm pregnant. This would be har dto believe! We've been using the pull out method for almost a decade! We did DTD the day I had my last OPK though....

Thanks for posting this! I first used Opks in March and decided to check when I had EWCM and got a positive 2 days in a row. The day after the 2nd positive I had sticky cm so I ovulated probably on day 2. Sure enough 2 weeks later AF showed up. Last month I had tons of ewcm and no +opk but my cycle was 41 days long and I was testing on days I had ewcm not every day. I just tested on cd20 and thought it was positive and the next day I had creamy cm. So BD happened last night thinking I was in O+12 but today I have a very open cervix and lots of ewcm so I think I am in the process of ovulating. The test I thought was positive was 48 hours ago. It's very confusing, not to mention the cheap. Opks like I have can be hard to read cause they always have 2 lines, they both have to be dark to be positive. If I don't get pg this cycle I am going to pay more for the cbd with the smiley faces so I know for sure. I may have just conceived on O day instead of O+12! All this is so very confusing I am just glad there are others who are as confused as me lol! Good luck hope you figure it out!

I'm glad I'm not alone! I only wish i'd just get the positive once! I guess I should figure out which kind I have! I'm wanting to do an 0+12 in July so I only have one more cycle to figure it out! AH!!! I guess many the true one was today because i had EWCM? Who knows!

 Remember now, the opk is only positive if the test line is as dark as, or darker than the control.  You can have 2 lines, but unless the test is as dark as or darker than the control, you are not yet having a surge.  Yes, you can have a surge and not ovulate (I've done this myself on a couple of occassions) and then have another surge later and finally ovulate.  I understand about you not being able to temp, my youngest dd is FINALLY sleeping well enough that I can temp on a regular basis again.  It will be good when you are able to put charts along with your opks.   GL!

thanks! Yes, maybe I was reading them incorrectly. Are all OPK's different? Are there some where any line means a surge?