OPK primer, anyone?

[scarletjane]

I know people are always talking on here about OPK's, but i've kind of tuned out the conversations because i don't use them. Now I think I may give it a shot this month, so I just bought 10 of them at the dollar store (I will probably have to pick up some more). So.. i've got some questions. The directions say to test once a day between 10am and 8pm. But I think i've seen some people do it twice a day so that you don't miss the surge. I thought I would start on day 12 (ovulation has been on day 21, day 17, day 16 the last 3 cycles). It seems ovulation is happening sooner each month. I've only had 3 PP cycles so far, so i'm still figuring out my new normal. Any thoughts on the timing? If I do twice a day, anyone have suggestions on what time is best? Anything else I need to know? Also, the box says once positive, ovulation will be in 24-48hrs. I thought it was in 12-48hrs. And is there anything specific to $store tests I should know?

thanks! I love that this place is such a wealth of information. I learn SO much on here!

[vivica2]

Originally Posted by scarletjane

If I do twice a day, anyone have suggestions on what time is best?

i can help withthis one. your LH surge happens (ususaly) between 1 and 5 pm. most seasoned TTC'rs will tell you to sest in the PM to catch the surge.

so i personally do a 'pm test only', from CD 10 until Fertile CM. and then one test at noon, and one at 5pm untill positive.

hope that helps save you some opk money.

[karmab]

i do something similar, but i start when i first begin to see fertile cm, i start with one late afternoon opk, just to avoid surprises. but for me, that is usually around cd 9 or 10. i do at least 2/day, sometimes 3, when im really expecting it to be pos- for me, around cd 12 usually. and yes, you can o 12-48 hrs after. you will probably see a pattern for you- for me it has been extremely consistant at 36 hours, freakishly so.

[scarletjane]

thanks, viv and karma! helpful info.

One last question.. should i test at the same time each day, or does it matter as long as it's between 1 and 5pm? I wondered if doing them at the same time would make them easier to compare to one another?

[Virginia884]

I don't have an answer for your question, Scarlet, but I wanted to say that I buy like 50 OPKs at a time from early-pregnancy-test.com and they are fairly cheap. You get free shipping on orders over $15 and you can always find a coupon code online. Plus, they show up at your door in 2 or 3 days. Really good site.

Good luck!

[karmab]

you dont have to do it at the same time. and you will probably have one or two that you say, "is that positive?" and not really be sure, but then it will be positive and you will know- when it's positive, it's really positive- totally indistinguishable or blaringly dark.

[luminesce]

I just wanted to chime in and say that the time of day you surge can be different for everyone. My surge seems to happen late at night, like 10pm+. I think I'm just wired differently and it reflects in my hormone levels!

In the past, I've tested twice a day to make sure I didn't miss it but I usually had two days of positive tests.

Are you charting temps too? That helped me understand my cycles even better.