to wonder if OPKs and the like are preventing some women from conceiving?

[OtterInaSkoda]

That's it really.

I've had reason to peruse various huns non-MN boards recently and have been struck by the number of posts by women who seem to rely on OPKs and counting cycle days to see if they're "allowed" to (apologies) bd or (worse) dtd.

Are some couples unintentionally sabotaging their efforts by relying on these things?

kt that's wonderful you got the family you yearned for and you have two lovely daughters. I'm sure the 9 years of ttc were heartbreaking for you.

zigg hope you will get some good news soon, it's very frustrating not knowing what more you can do.

Leonie - me too, second time round - we conceived the third month trying (tho again I used OPKs). I wonder why it's so much more prolific after a first baby.

I used a ClearBlue fertility monitor for the last 2 cycles of our trying to conceive. Having been on the pill for years I was struggling to get on top of my cycle and needed to get to know it again!

We have never been 'rampant' anyway, perhaps once or twice a week on average, which we're both happy with and doesn't make us any less in love than those who are at it every night. I wanted to make sure that we timed it right when it mattered, we'd been trying for about 4 or 5 months (not long at all I know) by the time I bought it and we were successful on 2nd cycle with the monitor.

See, I think the OP is talking out of a hole in her arse head, if this thread is anything to go by...

Of course OPKs won't work for everyone - just like nothing works for everyone. But they clearly help a lot of people, especially those who are medium to long-term TTC.

OP does have a point.
I've just spent 2 years TTC and getting increasingly more obsessive with CM, OPK and temping.
The month when I stop trying to find out when I ovulate and just have sex when I felt like it that month, ie twice, was when I fell pregnant.

Points - thanks - I am 15 weeks pg with DC2.

I'd just like to add that noticing ewcm is not enough for me. Like I said earlier, we have to have sex the day I ovulate in order to fall pregnant, so even now when I have several days of noticeable ewcm, it's not enough knowledge - I need to use OPks to know which day exactly is the best to conceive.

And with a baby of less than a year (when we were trying), we were simply too tired to do it every day. This is where OPKs came in.

I've been ttc a long time and they have worked for me - my period has turned up bang on time 15-16 days after getting a + on an OPK, I ovulate a day or so after the +. But we don't rely on them for timing of sex I just use them so I know when to expect my period. In fact I don't use them every month as ewcm is a good indicator for me.

Everyone is different what works for you doesn't work for me (well nothing works for me but that's another story )

OP is right in a way, in that with ttc it is very easy to get stuck in a rut of having sex at the 'right time' but its just desperation - will this egg be the 'good egg' and not wanting to miss it.

I have wondered about them since getting pregnant. Had used them for 7 months, assuming that a few days after the fertile window we needn't keep trying. Then I was ill for a lot of the eighth month and we decided that'd be a month off from TTC. Towards the end I felt better, we got it on around day 21 of the cycle (and I'm regular) and that did it! Had I been going by OPKs, and the temping which I'd been doing, we'd most likely have been 'having a rest' by then. So I know for many people an earlier attempt is the key, but for me it was later than the OPKs were suggesting was any good.

well I resisted OPKs and ttc for 15 months without (although went through a very traumatic time last year which st oppedmy periods for 5 months)

I read TCOYF and was pretty confident about my fertile time. I have 34 day cycles and realised it was about day 21. That said, I still wasn't getting pregnant and we went to dr to start fertility tests. Doctor didn't believe me that I knew approx when I ovulated, so I agreed to use OPK's for a while. I 'knew' the day I got a +ve on the opk that I was going to (and it was day 21).

got a positive pregnancy test when I tested the day after my period should have arrived.

I think it helped because we had sex several times over the next couple of days, whereas normally we were 'once every 2/3 days people' due to my long cycle and DH not being entirely convinced that I actually knew when I was most fertile (he was so much more prepared to believe a test stick!)

not saying they'll work for everyone but I certainly wish I had started using them earlier, simply because it confirmed to DH what I had tried to explain to him.

i do know what op means though- some other forums seem full of obsessed people who view ttc as a science from the word go- along the lines of "i havent actually started trying yet, i am 24 and healthy but have set up an excel spreadsheet and using opks and taking my temperature daily." this is not normal/healthy and i am sure that this amount of obsession does not help.

of course opks have their place- i used them for 2 months just to be sure i was ovulating ( was trying for a baby at 38 and no luck after a year). Once i had the peice of mind that i was, i just carried on getting on with it.

i don't really see the harm, they are just one more piece of information. I only ever used them sporadically, with no success in those months. I found temping easier. It's all really a game of chance and you can try to improve your chance with information on timing but there is no guarantee...

have been trying for number two for the better part of a year but number one defied medical expectations and I'm 40 now so not holding breath ...

OK - I feel less ambivalent about them now, hearing others' stories.

MN posters are generally well informed imo though - I think the story is a little different elsewhere. The threads ageing5years and chegirl refer to are the ones that make me wonder, really.