charting versus ovulation strips?

[Shami]

Apart from the cost of the O strips, why do you chart? I have been lurking a bit and the terminology some of you use is over my head. Plus I just don't have the motivation as of yet to do all that work charting. I know when I ovulate. I have excruciating lay my body down NOW pain and I use those little strips to confirm the LH surge.
Am I missing some benefit to charting?
Disclaimer: I just re read my post and it sounds, well, not so nice. Sorry, I am not trying to discourage anyone from charting. I am a 'get to the point' type person and I sometimes sound, well, not so nice.
Thanks in advance for all responses.

[ValH]

I chart because my cycles are not always so normal. Charting helps me figure out about when my period is going to start from the temp drop, and I can make sure that my temps stay up long enough for the luteal phase - needs to be at least 10 days to support a pregnancy. Plus, the temps confirm O - sometimes an LH surge can happen without O actually occuring. So I just feel that charting helps me better understand my cycle and allows me to be able to pinpoint any potential problems.

[Baby_Cakes]

Temps are the only thing that can confirm O. So while you can use the strips (opks) to detect the surge, the only way you can know for sure that you O'd is to temp.

That said, if you don't mind not knowing, then there's no big deal. But, some women don't have O pain. Some women gear up to O a few times (with + opks) but don't actually O. So timing BD is a little trickier.

I personally don't use opks b/c I feel like it's too much. It makes me a little too obsessive. I stick to just charting temp and cm.

[LivingSky]

Second what the others said. Not everyone has a regular cycle - and even people who do have a regular cycle will have the odd "off" one. I've seen so many charts that have 3 or 4 different sets of + OPKs, and the only wayt o know that the first one wasn't actually ovulation is to be tracking the temperatures as well.

Also, for people dealing with male factor infertility, they can't DTD just to cover their bases, or all those swimmers get used up pretty fast. They need to know exactly when ovulation is going to occur in order to time BDing for the best chance at conception.

For me, I've never felt O pain before this month, and my CM is not always consistent. So without temping, I would never know for sure when I ovulated. I could guess, and I did for the first 4 months of TTC, but after that I decided that guessing just wasn't good enough!

[karmab]

and at least a third of the time, o pain, which the process of o'ing takes 15-20 mins, will happen while you are asleep. if it's bad enough to wake you up, i would get that checked. o'ing shouldnt be that painful. but that means a third of the time, you will miss it anyway. and o pain can actually happen before, as the follicle is growing, during, as the egg is released, or most commonly after, when the corpus luteum grows- and it can get large and be quite painful- i've had one burst. what you feel may actually be corpus luteum pain- the day after the egg has popped (and is no longer viable.) im not saying that is your situation, but it could be for many women who have "o pain," there's no other way to tell for sure than temps, so if you arent temping, you could totally miss your fertile window going by that. temping is only accurate to about 24 hours, but even u/s and bloodwork cant do much better than that. (and btw- o strips dont have to be expensive- you can get great ones online for about 25 cents/each.)

now, women have managed to populate the entire world successfully long before temp charts, opks, and without checking cm and cp, but knowledge is power, and i find it really cool to know what is going on and being more in touch with what is happening in my body. it's boggling to think of all the women who go through life and never know this stuff about themselves.

[just_lily]

Where I live, OPKs are really freaking expensive. A basel themometer is about $15, and is only a one time expense. I may get around to ordering some internet OPKs, but haven't yet.

[Shami]

I am wondering if my O pain is due to age??
I am 42 today and I have had one child and 3 miscarriages.
My periods have gotten more painful as I age. I didn't use to have O pain.
Now it goes like this.
It's right around the 14th day or 13th day.
I get a terrible headache
I test with the strips and it is positive
At some point during the day time, I get a bad cramp in one side (usually, although last week it was in both sides)
the cramp radiates to my back and legs and I don't want to move
For the rest of the day my lower tummy is extremely sore and I just want to lay around like a wounded puppy.

Someone mentioned this much pain not being normal. I will check with my doctor next time, but it's been like this for a while.
Karmab--I was under the impression that the o pain is the corpus luteum bursting which is when the egg pops out. The way you worded it looks like the egg pops out and then the corpus luteum bursts. I thought they were one in the same. No?
So I could be having all that pain and no egg is actually there? Just the whole process happens without the egg? I can have a LH surge and no egg? And the only way you will truly know is by temp. readings? Is this what you are saying?

[Baby_Cakes]

Originally Posted by Shami

I can have a LH surge and no egg? And the only way you will truly know is by temp. readings? Is this what you are saying?

[shruley]

You can have both ovulation pain and a positive OPK test and not actually ovulate. The ONLY way you know you ovulated for sure is to document a temperature rise. I chart because the cycles aren't always the same, and I want to make sure there aren't any obvious problems I'm missing. (Am I Oing, is my leutal phase long enough, etc.)

[dakotablue]

I also wanted to add charting give the benefit of seeing your regular pattern and if something put the pattern off you can see it. ( no o'ing o ing later. When I became pregnant with DS I was pretty sure because my temps did not drop on day 12 like I tended to. others I know don't test until they have five days of high temps past period date. I felt more in control plus you can mark BD's and see if there is a chance if O does sneak up on you.

you can have multiple LH surges before O, and surges without O at all. Lh just lets you now your body is prepping to O, it doesn't tell you if it was successful.

[ValH]

Originally Posted by Shami

I can have a LH surge and no egg? And the only way you will truly know is by temp. readings? Is this what you are saying?

Exactly. Sometimes for some reason, the LH will surge, but the egg won't release, may be due to stress, illness, or some other physical reason. You may then have a second LH surge later when the egg really will release. Temps are the only true way to pinpoint ovulation - the only downside is you can only tell AFTER you O, which is too late to conceive. But if you have positive OPKs but no temp shift, at least you know to keep checking (and keep BDing) until you do finally O.

[karmab]

no girl- it's not a typical thing for a corpus luteum to burst- i was saying that it happened to me one time, when it grew to about 4 inches- much bigger than it should have, and it ruptured. i had internal bleeding and all kinds of ickyness with that. you are right in that the egg pops out of the follicle, and from that time on, it's called a corpus luteum. here's some pics:

http://www.newscientist.com/data/ima....200-2_567.jpg

[rcr]

I charted for a while, but after neary 2 years of TTC, I got really sick of temping, so now I just use my monitor and opks. I know there is a benefit to charting though.

[ValH]

Karmab - Thanks for the pics! I don't think I'd seen pics of the ovaries since college anatomy class. Isn't the human body an amazing thing? That tiny litle egg can eventually grow into a full size person... pretty cool.

[seafox]

I never got +'s reliably from OPK's, not sure why. If I had only used those, I would have thought I never ovulated! I did get o pain also, although now post-partum I haven't even though I've had a few cycles now. I guess its possible its less painful now, or that I slept through it or something.

I like temping since it shows me exactly whats going on. Everything else seems subject to interpretation.

[camprunner]

I wish I had the discipline to temp. This month I felt the gearing up for O cramps and had positive opk's which usually happens once a month. This time it happened every 3 days over a two week time period and I finally gave up. Now I am on CD 32 (the longest cycle I've ever had in my entire life) and yesterday I had a spot of blood. I have no idea what is going on. No idea when I might have actually ovulated if I did at all. I had tested several times prior to yesterday and it was negative. I'm assuming that I should wait after the spotting because it was either A. implantation spotting and it would be too early to test or B. I spotted from low progesterone which hasn't happened in few months but ya never know and my af is on it's way. So now I'm not so patiently waiting and it sure would be nice to have a chart to know what is going on (our schedule of waking and bedtimes is too inconsistent unfortunately)

[Shami]

Karmab, that sounds horrible, what you went through. I didn't mean to say that bursting like that was typical. I was wondering if my O pain every month is normal for my age.
It has been one year since my last miscarriage. It seems that I can get pregnant, but I lose them. It never occurred to me that this time 'round i may not be ovulating every month.
I may start charting. If I do, I will be back for help. Thanks everyone.
btw Karmab, fab pics, but I got whoosy just looking at them due to the pain it causes me! LOL I can be so whimpy sometimes. Love anatomy though.
BD stands for??? I know it means sexual intercourse, but I don't get the BD part.

[ValH]

BD stands for "baby dance." Or at least that's what I've always imagined it stands for.