hello everyone. I'm new to posting but my latest TTC adventure has me very confused so here I am.
my husband and I have been trying since September. My last two periods have been pretty late with no positive HPT but other pregnancy like symptoms. My period started eight days late in January and other circumstances lead me to believe it was a chemical pregnancy. According to clear blue digital advanced and the regular two-line style first reasons OPKs, I started ovulating a few days after my period ended (which is when I would have ovulated with my normal cycle and no late period). Yesterday out of curiosity I took the first response OPK and it came up as high LH again, nearly a week after the first surge. This morning I took tests, one first twosomes one clear blue digital. First response showed a surge with two very clear pink lines (just like the day and week before) clear blue has the blank circle so no surge.
Has as anyone experienced this? I assume I actually ovulated last week when both came up positive. I know it is possible to ovulate twice in a cycle but it's strange that I'm getting conflicting results. Can OPKs predict pregnancy?
thank you! I appreciate the feedback.
Re: Conflicting results with OPKs
Second, OPK's only detect the surge that causes you to ovulate, not that you actually did ovulate. You can have multiple surges a month and not ovulate.
Third, while OPK's can pick up a pregnancy, it's way after a HPT would turn positive.
You should start temping and read Taking Charge of your Fertility and learn to chart.
We recommend temping your BBT to get a better idea of when you ovulated. It is possible to get many LH surges in a cycle. OPKS can go hand in hand with temping though.
Why would you assume it was a chemical pregnancy? Neg HPT = Not pregnant at this time. It's that simple. You likely ovulated later on, hence your period was not late and came exactly when it was supposed to andplusalso pregnancy symptoms are identical to PMS.
Me: 28 DH: 29
Married: August 2014
TTC #1 Since March 2015
Diagnosed with PCOS March 2016
SA results normal April 2016
3 rounds clomid + trigger + TI = BFN
3 rounds clomid + trigger + IUI = BFN
Uterine polyp removed July 2017
Round 1 IVF January 2018
Also, pregnancy symptoms and period symptoms are the same. You're regular until you're not, so it just sounds like you aren't having a typical cycle.
PPs tried to explain to you that you can have multiple LH surges a cycle.
I don't think there's really anything to consult a Dr about here.
Me: 28 DH: 29
Married: August 2014
TTC #1 Since March 2015
Diagnosed with PCOS March 2016
SA results normal April 2016
3 rounds clomid + trigger + TI = BFN
3 rounds clomid + trigger + IUI = BFN
Uterine polyp removed July 2017
Round 1 IVF January 2018
Cycles can change at anytime for no reason at all.
LFAF April Siggy Challenge - TV/Movie BFFS - Romy & Michele
Re: "pregnancy like symptoms," you should try to avoid symptom spotting as much as possible. All it does is get your hopes up.
Also you should really put a trigger warning on this thread if you're going to talk about CPs and loss.
TTC #2: April 2018 ~~ BFP: May 2018 ~~ EDD: January 2019
Okay so on the to the rest of it:
If you had negative tests without any positive tests then it's very safe to assume it wasn't a chemical. Losses are heartbreaking so there is no reason to force yourself through the pain of a loss if you didn't have one. I'd suggest just assuming that you ovulated later than normal and therefor your period was later than normal. That is, after all, absolutely the most likely scenario.
I suppose I'm confused by why it would matter when you would have ovulated if your previous cycle had been your "normal" length. If you normally ovulate on, for example, CD14 then I could see why you'd assume you'll ovulate on CD14. If you ovulated the previous cycle on CD22 instead then I don't understand why you'd assume the next cycle you'll ovulate on CD6 or something. (These dates aren't meant to be absolute. Just examples for the purpose of discussion).
To be, it sounds like your body "geared up" to ovulate and was unsuccessful. When this happens it is very common for one's body to try again about a week later. So the timing would fit. If it were me I'd keep watching the OPKs to see if you get another positive soon. I'd also be monitoring CM.
I'm also just going to throw this out there for purpose of consideration: Unless you've had a clear, sustained thermal shift to indicate ovulation (or you've had ovulated confirmed by your doctor with an ultrasound/blood work) then you should always consider yourself fertile whenever you have fertile CM and/or +OPKs. I'd strongly suggest planning sex with the assumption that you're fertile now.
I'd also strongly suggest temping so you can avoid this confusion in the future. Most, if not all, of us temp because we like the information. We appreciate being able to see a temp shift and say "even though this OPK looks kinda positive, I clearly ovulated, so why am I taking this OPK!?"
Yes I've had several cycles with a +OPK, no ovulation and then another +OPK a week or so later. It's pretty common.
Don't assume that. Assume you're fertile till you have solid confirmation that you're not anymore.
I'm going to assume this is a typo. You cannot ovulate and then ovulate again a week later. The only way you have ovulate "more than once per cycle" would be to release 2+ eggs during ovulation instead of your ovary just releasing one egg. From what I've read the eggs would all be released within 24hours. Definitely not over the course of a week, or a month or whatever.
No. OPKs can't even reliably predict ovulation. They certainly can't predict pregnancy. OPKs aren't Miss Cleo
Edit: typos
TTC#1: January 2015- September 2016
Infertility, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Rainbow baby born June 6, 2017 ❤️
Baby #2 due June 12, 2018
now. Re: chemical pregnancy. They're called that because they're pregnancies that can only be detected by chemical test, aka HPT or blood test. If you didn't get a positive HPT, you weren't pregnant and didn't have a chemical.
Just a cycle that didn't end in pregnancy. No matter what symptoms you think you did or didn't have. It's always disappointing to get negatives, but there's no reason to label yourself as having a loss when you haven't.
TTC #2: April 2018 ~~ BFP: May 2018 ~~ EDD: January 2019
You got a ton of good information here - hope you don't reject it!!
Your periods werent late, you will have just ovulated later than you thought. The fact that you have now detected multiple LH surges supports this.
It is not true that you can ovulate twice in a cycle, you can only ovulate once, however you can have multiple LH surges whilst your body tries to ovulate. OPKs dont guarantee ovulation happened, they just tell you it may.
If you take your basal body temp every morning - three high temps will confirm ovulation.
You can't have pregnancy symptoms if you are not pregnant, only a pregnancy test can confirm pregnancy, pregnancy symptoms and PMS symptoms are the same.
I wouldnt advise to try using OPKs to detect pregnancy, most women have a small amount of LH in their bodies all the time so you could always get a faint second line at any time in your cycle. To avoid confusion I would stick to pregnancy tests.
Hope this helps.
I would also recommend reading Taking Charge of your Fertility and using Fertility Friend to track your temps and a Mabis thermometer
TEAM: PINK!!
The closest I've ever gotten to a positive OPK was on CD22 of this cycle. FF put ovulation at CD27. I'm not sure I agree with FF, because all the OPK were stark white after the one I had on CD22 that was the darkest I've ever seen. Still not a positive, mind, but in all my cycles (and two children) it was close. So a +OPK is great, but it guaruntees nothing about ovulation. Just so that you MIGHT ovulate in the next 24-26 hours. I've never seen a positive OPK, so its not required to pinpoint ovulation. Just a great way to target sex.
LFAF Summer 2016 Awards:
So the cycle after I had an actual, confirmed loss, if I weren't temping I would've thought I ovulated. I had lots of EWCM and some pretty dark OPKs (I don't really get true positives, more on that later). But through temping, I knew I never did. My body was just trying to do so and not succeeding, hence lots of LH and CM but that doesn't always lead to an egg being released.
On the flip side, the ONE time I got a true positive OPK was when I was pregnant. Obviously not ovulating. So they really are not a surefire way to know you are about to ovulate.
Don't label yourself as having a loss without knowing you did. It's not a club you want to join. You think you know your cycle but it's a case of not knowing how little you know since there are many misconceptions in your post. For example, if you do release more than one egg, they are always released within 24 hours of each other. You can have multiple LH surges and thus multiple +OPKs, but you cannot ovulate more than once any more time apart than that.
Temp and chart. It takes like maybe 5 minutes of your day and it sounds like you really want to have an understanding of what your body is doing. If I were relying on OPKs I would think I wasn't ovulating because I never really get positives, but thanks to temping I know I ovulated every cycle for the last year except for the one following my loss. It's very useful information. Thanks to temping, I also know I have a short luteal phase which suggests a possible need for supplemental progesterone in the future.
BFP #2 3/21 EDD 11/28/16