OPK Timing

2mommiesinoh

Okay so this is going to be a kind of *obvious* quesiton but given my cycle history I am having a hard time determining when to take the opks. When I got pregnant with Ky I was averaging 7-8 week cycles. Next time I tried hard core I was on Clomid so I was told when to take them and my cycles were "forced" every 35 days or so.

Now here we are this month and AF has showed up again ON HER OWN!!! This is HUGE for me. The last time this happened was when I got pregnant with Ky. We have been trying on and off since Ky was 6 months old between the two of us and this is the first time in that time span that my body has had two cycles in a row without meds. Problem is my cycles are now down to 4 weeks *gasp* and I have NO IDEA when a normal person would start OPKS as I have either started them super late (long cycle) or I was told when to take them (medicated cycle). SO when should I start? I am all ready to pee on some sticks people!

madisonpeas

If I remember correctly, we started around day 9 or 10.  We did OPKs on a generous schedule though.  That said, if this length of cycle is new for you, it can't hurt.

ctbride08

day 10, gl!

hlke

This little chart is very close to what came with our OPKs:

https://www.peeonastick.com/opkfaq.html#8

We tend to start a day earlier than the chart says, because we want to see a for sure negative test so we know when the surge starts. 

emma+karen

I would usually start about 5 days before I expected to get a positive.  As hlke says, I also used the chart that came with the OPKs for guidance.

hlke

stringy813:

related to this - when do some people STOP testing (besides when it turns positive, which i suppose is what happens 99% of the time). This month is kind of a second/third trial month for us, we are going to start IUI's next month hopefully.  Last month it was positive on day 15 - this month day 15 came and went with nothing on Sat, and still nothing this morning.  Been testing first thing in the morning starting last monday (day..9)- though yesterday did another in the afternoon.  I'm afraid we missed it  but it could just be late too. we haven't been temping, but i'm starting to feel like we should be....we were originally told the opk's were enough..

Yeah...if you are charting you can stop when you see an ovulation rise on your chart.  If you're not, one option is to just keep testing until you get a positive or AF comes.  It's possible you're ovulating late, which can happen for a whole bunch of reasons, the biggest being physical or emotional stress.  We use Wondfos, which are really cheap, so we'd probably just keep going, but I know some are really expensive.

If it turns out you missed it this cycle, try testing twice a day.  We've almost always seen C's surge on a 10 pm test, rather than the 2 pm test, which might just be a quirk of her body. I read somewhere that LH doesn't show up until the afternoon, so I'd definitely test in the afternoon, and then add a second test at bedtime (and if you're feeling ambitious, you can add a third in the morning).  The Wondfos from Amazon are $14 for 50.  When we think it's positive, we confirm with the clearblue easy digital OPK.

eclausenlee

I'm an early producer (or an ovary-achiever, as my bff put it), so I usually started testing around day 9 and sometimes had a positive as early as day 10.