OPK Help Thread

mkw8387

@kpearse99 thanks so much. I’m going to start doing twice daily and see if I see anything in the next few days!

krash_

OPK's in spoiler above. Premom app; easy@home OPK's CD's and time on left. Pictures usually taken within 10 minutes. 

The last OPK from this morning took a long time for the dye to rise and the lines themselves didn't seem to absorb much of the dye (notice there is still a bunch of it left on the left) but it does look like the test line is darker than the control. Originally Premom said that the first OPK from CD 12 was peak but corrected it after this mornings. It could have been a dud. I will definitely keep testing but based on CM O would have been yesterday, EW CM on CD 11, watery on CD 12 and sticky this morning CD 13. No temp spike yet. Will also keep HIO. Just frustrated.  

chindimples04

IDK what my body is doing! I got a positive OPK yesterday AM, two negatives yesterday PM and NOC, an AMOST positive this AM, and a positive this PM. JUST FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY BODY!

OPK’s in spoiler. easy@home brand on Premom app.

 

legallykate

@chindimples04 I defer to others who have used that brand of OPKs, but with Wondfos I would consider all five of those almost-positive. So I would keep testing, I usually do every 4 hours when they first get near-positive even though it is a pain in the ass.

chindimples04

@legallykate the app says that the ones that score a 1 or higher are positive. I drank a ton of water between the score of 1 and .72 and .44, so I’m wondering if it was just diluted urine? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m going to test twice again tomorrow and see what happens. I’m just confused and my temps are giving an clear data since they have been all over the place.

keikilove

@chindimples04 I’d call O on CD16. It’s much stronger than other days, even if not darker than the control line. Testing today should help you figure out what’s going on. Good luck! 

krash_

@chindimples04 I get negative OPKs after a positive when my urine is diluted too. Hopefully today is peak! 

chindimples04

@keikilove @krash_ got a more positive one last night. 🤣 Thinking that will be peak. FF says O today possibly. This is so much later than I’m used to. 

asf0613

had another late cycle it seemed and got peak of CD16, but no temp rise yet and got another high reading this morning after low tests all day yesterday.  pregmate strips read after ~5min on premom app.  seems odd that it is rising again, right?
t/c chart, strips and temp chart all in spoiler

 (spo

krash_

@asf0613 personally I don't agree with Premom's T/C ratio. I think the test from today looks higher than the one on CD 16. The control line on CD 16 still looks slightly darker than the test line. Today the test line looks darker than the control. Do you ever try retaking the picture if you don't think the ratio is accurate? Sometimes I will retake it in better lighting and get a higher ratio. 

asf0613

today definitely looks darker..took another one that came up as 2.12 so it seems like that earlier one mightve been off.  i do often retake them but try to keep the lighting consistent

chindimples04

@asf0613 today’s looks much darker than on CD16. The others could have been low to if you were over hydrated or something. I take mine in the same window sill with natural lighting as I found that it helps keep the ratios a little more “accurate”. You can also edit the ratios of it, too. 

asf0613

@chindimples04 todays was even darker! i wont be able to test again til later tonight but man i've never peed on so many sticks!

chindimples04

@asf0613 maybe you are having a gradual onset this cycle? Mine is usually a rapid onset but it’s about 45/55 on women who have gradual versus rapid onset LH surges. 

kvh22

Anyone get something like this when they take their photo of OPKs for premom? Using easy@home strips and putting it on TP for the white background. It's faint (I'm only on CD8 but wanted to start now when it'd for sure be negative). It gave me 0 but it's not *that* dark - I can see a teeny line. I'm down to adjust manually or not use the app at all since it should be straightforward (ish). But wondering if I did something wrong and not just that it's really negative (as I was expecting/it should be this early).

Kenneylynn3

I would try retaking the photo or input it in manually on the very low end. When the start to get darker, they do register.

optimisticoctopus

@kvh22 last cycle was my first time using Premom to analyze my OPKs (I use easy@home too), and I feel like it consistently put my t/c ratio lower than I would’ve thought up until it was fully positive.  There’s nothing more annoying than testing and getting a 0 ratio when you can see a line in person. When that happens to me I usually just try and retake the picture with better lighting, or I call it not useful enough to save, get rid of it, and try again the next day. 

chindimples04

@kvh22 I have found that I get the best ratio when I take the picture using natural and direct sunlight. But honestly, the ratio means nothing until it’s positive. 🤷🏻‍♀️

ashaislurking

@kvh22 sometimes it just can't register the faint line, sometimes it's the lighting (I know a lot of ladies that get creative with their lighting for OPK pics), and sometimes you do just have to adjust it manually.

sienna221

I finally got a positive OPK last night via the Pregmate OPK and a solid smiley through the CB digital test. My SO and I did the deed last night. This morning my Pregmate OPK was even more positive (I don’t think that’s correct verbiage Haha) and the Femometer app guessed the LH this morning at 157%. My SO is out of town today/tonight so we won’t be able to take advantage of the high reading. I’m worried we’re missing the right window. Is there a chance I will get a high reading again tomorrow? (Newbie here so apologies if I’m naive to basic ovulation facts here. Learning as I got!) thanks. 

chindimples04

@sienna221 welcome! You typically ovulate 12 to 48 hours after a positive OPK. So doing the deed last night is helpful. Most likely today would be your ovulation day. Even if you have a high rating tomorrow it’s unlikely that having sex tomorrow would lead to a pregnancy as an egg only survives for 12-24 hours after it is released. Many do the deed the day after ovulation just in case but chances of actually achieving a pregnancy from that day are low.

sienna221

@chindimples04 Thanks for info. 

I ended up just using another OPK and the LH had gone down to 44% so maybe last night was a good time since maybe tonight would have been too late. 

chindimples04

@sienna221 the chances of getting pregnant are about the same for 1 and 2 days prior to ovulation (for you, today and yesterday). Some research shows that 2 days prior (yesterday for you) may have a slightly better chance. Good luck!

marian-13

@runningoncookies You can check the T/C line position is recognized correctly when using premom's auto ovulation reader. If it's wrong, try to adjust the slider under the test strip to locate the T/C line position.

kvh22

I had "negative" but rising OPKs yesterday

This morning at 7am it was 1.4-1.6 (ranges b/c I'm using both the premom and Proov apps). I'm on the west coast so haven't tested again today but was kind of surprised that it was that high with FMU. Premom called 1.43 high and Proov called 1.61 peak (same strip, they've been about .1-.2 apart with premom being lower the entire time I've been testing).

1. Do I mark today as peak or high? Or should I just do +/- instead of L, H, P? Does it depend on if I get higher ones another day?
2. How much longer/many more times do you test once you get one over 1?

inthewoods23

@kvh22 test again later today. If the numbers are lower (aka less positive) then you know your values from this morning are the peak. I stop testing once my tests go decently negative (like maybe to 0.8?).

acleverusername

@kvh22 responding to your "surprised that it was that high with FMU" comment. What I've learned is that LH production in mid and late-follicular phase is pretty constant, so it you're just as likely to get a high with FMU as you are in the afternoon. I'm part of another fertility community and the following image was shared to explain how LH production changes over the course of your follicular phase. 

It's true that the frequency of how often LH is released (this is called a 'pulse') and how much LH is released (called 'pulse amplitude') changes across a 24 hour period. However, LH production doesn't just shut down at night. The extent to which LH changes across a 24 hour period depends a lot on your cycle phase -- while there may be big differences in Day vs Night LH in the early follicular and luteal phases, it's not so much the case for the mid- and late-follicular phase (i.e. when we're likely to be doing LH tests). 

EFP = early follicular phase
MFP = mid-follicular phase
LFP = late-follicular phase

chindimples04

@kvh22 I don’t mark peak until my ratio goes below positive. And honestly, from what I’ve read, the peak doesn’t matter. It’s the first positive that matters the most and ovulation occurs 12-48 hours after the first positive.

kvh22

@acleverusername ahh okay that's helpful and really interesting.

@chindimples04 okay, cool, that makes sense.

Thanks everyone! I was so focused on the surge being around midday I was surprised but am learning a lot. Basically, sounds like I could even have ovulated already 🤔 But I'll just keep DTD until my temp spike to make sure 😂

acleverusername

@kvh22 I figured since you're so fascinated w/ OPKs, you'll enjoy this info. I have a link to the entire research article if you're interested. 

kvh22

@acleverusername yes, please! 😂🤓

acleverusername

@kvh22 attached here. 🤓right back at you!

kvh22

@acleverusername I'm working on reading this but I can't get it to work on my phone so it's one of a million tabs I have on my laptop. Thank you!!! Super interesting so far, I just need to not be doing a bunch of stuff to focus on it fully.

kadeephd

I am wondering if it's typical to go from a very negative test strip right before bed to a very positive one in the morning.  It makes me paranoid that I'm going to miss my surge if I'm not testing a bunch, but I don't ovulate regularly so testing a bunch is going to start getting taxing.  I was testing three times per day on CD 17 and all were negative, but I only logged the last one.  Maybe my urine was just too dilute for the first test which is why it didn't pick up a rise in LH?  Don't mind my black drawing -- just trying to follow the rules and hide the pee area. These are mommed strips.

ashaislurking

@kadeephd Mine do that. Usually they'll get progressively darker but not quite positive, then they'll lighten to almost white about 24 hours before getting my positive test. I am -definitely- paranoid about missing my surge and also have a short surge. That's why I BBT on top of doing OPKs.

kadeephd

@ashaislurking Alright I'm definitely going to BBT next month.  I'm missing out on so much data!  ETA: I noticed a somewhat similar pattern the week before I ovulated.. the tests were getting a bit darker and then lightened up.

Also ETA:
For anyone just using opks -- do you usually consider that day or the next day to be the day you O (for the purposes of keeping track of dpos)?  I guess it could even be two days later that you O.  I know you can't tell for sure which day it is with just the test and no BBT, so I'm just wondering what people do.

bbrahmbhatt

@kadeephd I am the same as @ashaislurking in that I have the lowest/lightest OPK the day before I have a super positive one. 

inthewoods23

@kadeephd your OPKs are pretty close to what I've been experiencing the last few months. Mine start around 0.2 and when it bumps up slightly in the 0.3 range I expect to see the next one around 0.9 and above. But my surge sticks around for a day and a half so I don't really risk missing it

chindimples04

@kadeephd o usually happens 12-48 hours after a positive OPK. Because you got your first positive this morning, it could be anywhere from tonight to Sunday early morning. ETA: I usually call next day O. 

legallykate

@kadeephd I have a longer surge, so for me O would either be the next day after my first peak reading or even the day after that some months (based on BBT).