Need opinions & advice-opk's/CM question

LizWhit1

Sorry to post so soon after my intro but I'd love to get some advice from some of you who have more experience with this. I started using OPK's in Feb and am realizing that "positives" for me are not true positives unless the test line is darker. I must produce a lot of LH bc I will test positive for as many as five days in a row! This month, my chart shows (from temping) that I O'ed on day 13 but my test was positive on day 14! Prior to that I was trying to test in the afternoons and was holding my urine for 4 hrs & everything, but getting negatives. So with me, FMU seems to be the only way that works. Anyone else have this experience? Also, I just started checking my CM. I had three days of EWCM, but it wasn't a lot. Should I be concerned about that?

hooligans4

Your surge will be 12-36 hours before ovulation. If you are using wondfo opk's then you should test early afternoon and evening. The fancy opk's tell you to use FMU but I've never used them so I don't know them.
You can have several surges but I have never heard of a surge after confirmed ovulation. That one stumps me.

I never use my cm to judge fertility. Mine changes so often and is affected by how hydrated I am. Some months I have lots of cm and others it's sparse. Just enter it into ff and that will just give them more info to help pinpoint ovulation.

LizWhit1

Right, that's what I've read too. I don't know...my opk's are the Rite Aid store brand strips. If I test in the morning, the positive shows up, but it seems maybe my urine is too diluted, even if I wait 4 hrs to pee, to get a positive later in the day. The day it looks like I O'ed, I didn't test in the am and the afternoon was a false negative, I'm thinking. If I don't get a BFP or start on Mon, I'm going to try opk's one more time (I have 4 strips left) and then will probably quit using them.

jilligan14

OPK's don't accurately indicate ovulation for me. I've used both the clearblue advanced digital and the Wondfo strips (sometimes at the same time to see if they correlate with each other). If I get a positive on one, I get a negative on the other. I'll test with FMU and in afternoon or evening. Most of the time when I get a positive, I don't see temp rise until later (sometimes a week later) and sometimes I don't even ovulate (even if I got a strong positive). Even though the digital ones are more pricey, they start to show when your estrogen is peaking and I find that useful for gathering information since I have PCOS (and crazy estrogen levels have been linked with PCOS and not ovulating on a regular basis). I also get CM and EWCM on a fairly regular basis but again I just enter everything in so I have a record of what's happening/changing from cycle to cycle. I'd keep trying a little longer and see if you can find any patterns...

LizWhit1

Thanks, that's very helpful.

FemShep

I had similar issues this cycle-positives on Wondfo OPKs, negatives on other brand (although I may have negated that because the other brand was supposed to be used within 7 days of opening), three straight days of positive OPKs with lots of CM, then another positive OPK a week later with EWCM. I have no idea what's going on this cycle, and while I think my temps confirmed ovulation, I was sick during my mystery week between the tests and am afraid the temps aren't valid. Plus random spotting and cramps.

Dr. Google wasn't much help. One random poster said that you can have a LH surge after confirmed ovulation, another said it's possible (though rare) to ovulate twice in a cycle. At this point, I'm throwing up my hands, saying, "Who the hell knows?", and waiting for a BFP or AF.

Grrr. I'm sorry I don't have better info, @LizWhit1 but I definitely share your confusion and frustration.

LizWhit1

Same here...AF or BFP on Mon. Also I think I'm feeling some cramping (implantation??) but it may just be constipation and gas pain. Hahaha @ FemShep