Question for you lovely ladies (poll)

coreysmomma · June 2011

So, I don't belong here -- not pg after a loss... yet and I know that sometimes when people come here to ask questions, it can be annoying, but I am hoping this is a simple enough question and you won't mind answering... I made it easy (in a poll).

I haven't been a fan of OPKs and I just bought some and I am just curious if they are helpful, because I see so many people use them and they don't seem to help.

Pardon my ignorance on the topic.

*I am so happy for you ladies and wish you all the best in your pregnancy. I hope to join you one day. Smile

Danielle

[Poll]

erinlovesdavid · June 2011

I didn't use them, but I think they can be a quite effective took when dealing with wonky/irregular cycles, which you seem to have, glancing at your charts.

We don't mind answering questions per se. It's the phishing posts that get annoying, same as they do on TTCAL. Smile

Aubs13 · June 2011

I was charting with my temps and OPKs for several months. Good luck!

karma79 · June 2011

Questions are always welcome! We want to see our TTCAL friends over here ASAP!!!

coreysmomma · June 2011

erinlovesdavid:
I didn't use them, but I think they can be a quite effective took when dealing with wonky/irregular cycles, which you seem to have, glancing at your charts.
We don't mind answering questions per se. It's the phishing posts that get annoying, same as they do on TTCAL.

Thank you very much, Erin. My O date varies from CD12-CD17, so they are not too bad; they've just been different since my m/c. I am comfortable with charting, but my doc was persistent about using a Fertility monitor and I think this is the next best thing.

Congrats on your June baby!! I have a June baby too (except he will be 13 on the 13th! Indifferent

Danielle

coreysmomma · June 2011

Aubs13:
I was charting with my temps and OPKs for several months. Good luck!

Thank you Aubs! Congrats to you!!

Danielle

coreysmomma · June 2011

karma79:
Questions are always welcome! We want to see our TTCAL friends over here ASAP!!!

Thank you Karma! Congrats to you!!

Danielle

itsmegin · June 2011

I used them, but both cycles I got pregnant I never got a + OPK (link to BFP chart is in my siggy).

I am not sure they're worth using. If you can use them as an additional tool along with temping, sometimes they can be helpful, but to me they were so hard to interpret that they weren't very useful. I just made sure we had sex at least EOD well before I typically O'd based on past charts.

And to answer your other question, I don't mind at all when people come to PGAL to ask questions. I think it makes more sense to ask some of them here than on TTCAL. GL!

dondraandluis · June 2011

I voted yes because I did with this pregnancy and the last two. The first pregnancy I didn't because we decided to just try and see what happens in the beginning. I found them very helpful. I wouldn't have known that I usually ovulate from day 17-20 without them. Good luck to you!

BritanyV · June 2011

coreysmomma:
erinlovesdavid:
I didn't use them, but I think they can be a quite effective took when dealing with wonky/irregular cycles, which you seem to have, glancing at your charts.
We don't mind answering questions per se. It's the phishing posts that get annoying, same as they do on TTCAL.
Thank you very much, Erin. My O date varies from CD12-CD17, so they are not too bad; they've just been different since my m/c. I am comfortable with charting, but my doc was persistent about using a Fertility monitor and I think this is the next best thing.

Here's my experience and advice on the subject. I like OPKs my advice is to splurge and get digitals and digitals only! You can usually find a great deal on the 20 pack on Amazon with free shipping. You will save yourself a lot of grief and "is this positive?" if you just go with the digitals.

The proper way to use OPKs (although not all packaging tells you this and some will tell you that you can test with FMU...in reality you can't) is to use it in the afternoon, 2pm is supposed to be the best time but anywhere from 11am-7or8pm is ok. I usually tested around 5pm. You want to make sure to hold your pee for at least 3-4 hrs prior to testing and do not drink a lot of fluids in that time period because you do not want to dilute your urine.

My last cycle I was temping, using OPKs AND using a fertility monitor (I got it for free from someone that is doing IVF now). The OPK and Fertility Monitors were in sync. I got a peak reading on the monitor the same day I got a positive OPK and both of those were in sync with my temps.

It is possible to have a very short LH surge and miss it on an OPK, which is why the fertility monitor would be superior to OPKs. If you have a normal surge, then if you use OPKs properly, you shouldn't have a problem pin pointing ovulation. The Fertility Monitor is easier than OPKs because you use FMU, so you wake up, POAS, and then your done for the day with testing BUT the monitor is expensive and sometime the OPKs are worth the hassle not to pay the big bucks $$ for the monitor.

HTHs! Good luck!

hopeandlove0417 · June 2011

I had bought the first response ones......if AF came, I would have bought the clear blue instead. The first response you have to use within the 30days.....the clear blue are individually wrapped. I remember your siggy from TTCAL board, I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see you here soon!

hopeandlove0417 · June 2011

Also, I went a little nuts with the tests, I knew I wouldn't use them alllll so towards when I expected to O I tested twice in one day lol once in the morning, and once at night

Karen1998 · June 2011

I used them along with charting. The cycle I got pregnant this time was weird. I had a positive OPK two days before FF confirmed my O and a negative on the day FF confirmed O. A dating u/s later showed that FF was likely right. We stopped BDing at O as we were tired and doing the every day thing during O and leading up to O (we'd previously always done the EOD thing) and had been going for a while.

I used OPKs only around the time I would normally O. Post-miscarriage this date varied a lot, so I'd usually start using them around CD 14. I found that I was O'ing anywhere from about CD 16 (I had one really early cycle) to CD 25ish, though normally around CD 22-23. I started using OPKs at CD14 because of that wacky early cycle. It was actually the only 28 day cycle I've ever had and was my fourth after the m/c. I also only used them once a day as I drink way too much water throughout the day to hold it for an afternoon pee. So, I only checked FMU. It was a pain, but it helped me to make some sense out of my chart when it was wacky.

The only questions that really bug me are the repeated "how many cycles did it take" questions. Those only get me when there's been a run of them, as sometimes we'll get several people in one day asking and they're not scrolling down to see that someone already asked that, often multiple times, on the same page. Past that, I think we're happy to answer questions as we've been there before and know how helpful it is to have some extra support.

mundayem · June 2011

I didn't chart and I used the digital OPKs from clear blue easy for this pregnancy that I am currently in. It really helped me, the other OPKs were always confusing to me when they actually turned positive. When I got to where I thought I was close to Oing based on my body signals I tested twice a day with the digital and my surge was detected one time in the afternoon so definitely don't limit yourself to only testing in the morning. Good Luck and I hope you get to come over here soon!

haziedaze · June 2011

I used them and I'm glad- I had a super weird cycle where I ovulated around CD32. I thought I was having pregnancy symptoms and was ovulating instead. Because I had positive OPKs for the first time that month I decided to keep DTD until we knew one way or another- 2 wks later, we were pregnant. So they were helpful for us because of my super funky cycle. GL! Hope to see you here soon!

coreysmomma · June 2011

BritanyV:
coreysmomma:
erinlovesdavid:
I didn't use them, but I think they can be a quite effective took when dealing with wonky/irregular cycles, which you seem to have, glancing at your charts.
We don't mind answering questions per se. It's the phishing posts that get annoying, same as they do on TTCAL.
Thank you very much, Erin. My O date varies from CD12-CD17, so they are not too bad; they've just been different since my m/c. I am comfortable with charting, but my doc was persistent about using a Fertility monitor and I think this is the next best thing.
Here's my experience and advice on the subject. I like OPKs my advice is to splurge and get digitals and digitals only! You can usually find a great deal on the 20 pack on Amazon with free shipping.    You will save yourself a lot of grief and "is this positive?" if you just go with the digitals.
The proper way to use OPKs (although not all packaging tells you this and some will tell you that you can test with FMU...in reality you can't) is to use it in the afternoon, 2pm is supposed to be the best time but anywhere from 11am-7or8pm is ok. I usually tested around 5pm. You want to make sure to hold your pee for at least 3-4 hrs prior to testing and do not drink a lot of fluids in that time period because you do not want to dilute your urine.
My last cycle I was temping, using OPKs AND using a fertility monitor (I got it for free from someone that is doing IVF now).   The OPK and Fertility Monitors were in sync.   I got a peak reading on the monitor the same day I got a positive OPK and both of those were in sync with my temps.
It is possible to have a very short LH surge and miss it on an OPK, which is why the fertility monitor would be superior to OPKs.    If you have a normal surge, then if you use OPKs properly, you shouldn't have a problem pin pointing ovulation.    The Fertility Monitor is easier than OPKs because you use FMU, so you wake up, POAS, and then your done for the day with testing BUT the monitor is expensive and sometime the OPKs are worth the hassle not to pay the big bucks $$ for the monitor.
HTHs! Good luck!

Thank You for taking the time to respond. I actually did just splurge this morning and bought digitals for the first time. Funny you suggest that! U actually learned that cycle sfyer posisvcvcccpm (like late pm is the best tome for me to test! I will continue temping too. And probably going to BD ED this cycle

coreysmomma · June 2011

Sorry for typos.I'm on my phone. Thanks so much ladies. You are wonderful!

EricaK28 · June 2011

I had been charting and using OPK's I ran out of OPK's the month I got pregnant so did not use any that month just charted.

MCH77 · June 2011

I bought the smile face ones and IC. I would use the IC from about about day 10 and as soon as I thought it was a + I would use the smile face to confirm. It really helped.

The main reason I used both was $. My thought was if I was going to be doing this for several cycles (which I did), I only wanted to use the smile face ones for when I really got close to O.

Froggy76 · June 2011

Hi Danielle! Hope you're doing well.

I did use OPKs and I found them helpful. I used both Wondfos and digitals. The Wondfos were helpful because I could watch the line getting darker each day, so I knew that O was approaching, and the digital gave me a definite day. I bought all the tests on Amazon, so it wasn't a huge investment. Good luck!

Eris-Alexis · June 2011

Personally, I am happy to answer questions as long as they aren't "please tell me I am KTFU" questions.

DH and I have been trying for 15 cycles before this BFP. I did not use OPKs for my first pregnancy, but I was on a medicated cycle and didn't need to. While I was on a medicated cycle again for this little one, I did use OPKs and I found the extra information really helpful. I have PCOS, so without medication, my cycles are extremely crazy.

ETA: Posted a little too early. I wanted to wish you GL as well. Hopefully we will see you over here on a regular basis soon.

fightingravity · June 2011

My cycle is regular enough (O between CD14 and CD17) that I just temped and didn't use OPKs--we had sex ED or EOD starting around CD10/11 until I got a temp jump. If you're less regular, I can see how you could burn out using that strategy

My first pg I used a friends CBEFM, which was really easy and worked well...but I wouldn't have sprung for it if I had to pay for it. You can get them used on ebay and then resell afterwards for an overall minimal investment.

Good luck, and hope to see you move over here from TTCAL soon!

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