Charting/OPT question

eacerna

Do OPT/OPKs work?? I bought an OPK for the first time. To those who have used it and have charted, did your O date match? Just curious...

Married2MrWright

OPKs work by detecting your Lutenizing Hormone surge which is usually 24-48 hours before you ovulate.  That said, the only way to CONFIRM ovulation is with a temperature shift detected by charting your BBT.  You can have a LH surge and not ovulate.  You might consider taking the free tutorials at FertilityFriend.com (they come via email) since you're already read TCOYF.  They're a nice brush-up and have links to more information, etc. which I found helpful when I was TTC.

When I used OPKs (first two months charting) they did align somewhat to my temp surge (but were "off" sometimes by a day or two).  As long as you have BMS at least 3 days before your O and two days after you should catch the egg even if the OPK is off by a day or so.

So gals like to just to do the BMS every-other-day method from about CD10 until AF arrives again.  No charting necessary.  But that is a commitment to lots of BMS and if you and DH are busy people it can become like a chore.  Charting and using OPKs helps narrow the window of fertility so you can really concentrate your efforts during that time (no pun intended).

After two months of charting BBT and using OPKs I got my Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor and much preferred it to the OPKs because it also detects a rise in estrogen which is a predictor of a more fertile time.  It was also exactly right-on with my chart and I really believe it helped us get PG since the cycle I got KU my O was delayed like 10 days!  The only way I knew that was from my CBEFM and my chart.

MauiWedding08

Lori pretty much summed it up.

 

Also keep in mind they are not like a pg test where a line is a line is a line   

Instead, the line can be lighter/darker depending on the surge, and if it really was an O so there is a certain amount of self interpretation that goes into it which can be frustrating.

I didn't ovulate so and that was always confirmed by no temp shift/no period on my own so I didn't use OPK.  I do know that my Dr. was going to recommend the CBEFM (b/c it's more accurate/easier to use) but told me not to get one until after I actually had an O and started to have some reoccurring cycles - my first O turned into my pregnancy so I never gave that a try.

lelekay

I used OPKs for three months, two of those getting a clear positive, and one month there was no distinct surge.  It was my third month of using them that I also charted for the first time, that being the BFP month.  For me the charting did seem to line up with the OPK...at least that month.  For me, I do think they helped, at least a little.

redshoegirl

The other girls pretty much summed it up, but I'll add that they were VERY helpful for me - my positive tests did line up with my charts, so they were great for giving us a heads up for when we needed to start doing the deed.

One thing I want to point out though is that although the digital tests are much easier to use, they're also less sensitive. Using digitals, I'd only get one positive test per cycle, but using regular strips, I'd get positives for a couple days in a row (it does depend on how long your LH surge lasts for, but it is pretty common to get a positive for more than one day leading up to ovulation, which is really handy since it's the 2-3 days prior to ovulation that you're most fertile, not just 1 day).

mrspresley

they do work, but they are open to a lot of interpretation b/c it's based on whether your test line is darker than the control line or not...which can be a bit subjective..the first time i used them i kept wondering "is it darker now?!" and kept thinking so every day until i actually got the positive result and then it was like "oh, ok...now i know what it's supposed to look like"....b/c at first, i kept wanting the test line to be darker and and even when it was close but still lighter, i'd call it a positive....still, nothing is 100% and as we found out, even though i got + OPKs and it corresponded w/a thermal shift on my chart, i wasn't really ovulating. so you never know. but for the most part they work great, esp if you are good at interpreting the darkness of the lines.

eacerna

mrspresley:

they do work, but they are open to a lot of interpretation b/c it's based on whether your test line is darker than the control line or not...which can be a bit subjective..the first time i used them i kept wondering "is it darker now?!" and kept thinking so every day until i actually got the positive result and then it was like "oh, ok...now i know what it's supposed to look like"....b/c at first, i kept wanting the test line to be darker and and even when it was close but still lighter, i'd call it a positive....still, nothing is 100% and as we found out, even though i got + OPKs and it corresponded w/a thermal shift on my chart, i wasn't really ovulating. so you never know. but for the most part they work great, esp if you are good at interpreting the darkness of the lines.

 

i just started using the OPK. i was curious to see how it works. I'll start charting this week.

 Jamie - i understand what you mean about wanting the line to be darker! i also found myself asking whether the line is dark enough or not.