OPK's? Always two lines? Am I broken?!

[PickettBowtruckles]

I'm over on the TTC First month thread and have been asking lots of OPK questions but thought it may be with worth making a thread specifically about this in the hopes there is someone who can help me understand this!

I consistently have two lines on OPK's. They're rarely darker than the control but still definitely visible. A couple of times I thought I had positives but then I get ones later in the week which I think are positive again? I just cannot get my head round them and really struggling to know what's going on. I came off BC in September after close to 10 years on it, had a withdrawal bleed as usual and then had a 51 day cycle before my period returned. I'm on day 37 today with occasional aches and cramps the past week or so but nothing showing yet. All pregnancy tests have been BFN's so far! I've attached some photos of the last few weeks OPK's and close ups of two which I thought were positive but were 5 days apart? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Sorry only let me add 3 photos at a time so here are the other 3!

I had the same issue. Don't know what it was but when I followed a low
Gi Diet and dropped 10
Pounds it corrected itself

That's interesting to know. I've definitely put on a few pounds over Christmas and the new year diet starts tomorrow so would be interesting to see if that affects it!

Sounds like your body is gearing up to ovulate and then doesn't. This is not at all unusual after using the pill.

Almost all women have some LH in their bodies all the time. It is only when you get a 'surge' that you might ovulate.

I would highly recommend that you add bbt tracking to your routine as this will better help you pinpoint of in future cycles.

You can buy strips with different levels of sensitivity — which ones do you have? It looks to me as if they are too sensitive, so you’re always getting something close to a positive. With a lower sensitivity (higher limit for detecting the LH hormone) you’d be able to see the LH surge clearly as opposed to the general level of LH in urine.

If you’re using the bog standard ones then a) you could be pregnant (they will register HCG as LH), or b) you might have PCOS, where LH levels tend to be slightly raised all the time. That’s not necessarily something to worry about, but it could be worth asking for the bloodwork to be done if you have other signs (e.g. if your periods don’t get back on to a more normal cycle after a few months, or you also have adult acne/ a high waist to hip ratio etc). Probably all fine though!

If you are getting endless positives on CD33-37 then have you done a pregnancy test?

You may always get the second line appearing, but very faintly, as there is always a small amount of LH floating around. However, those all look positive which is a bit different...

@physicskate that could make sense, I intend to start BBT from next cycle so hopefully that'll help.

@hopsalong I just have the bog standard amazon cheapies, I think they may be called one step? I don't think I have any other PCOS symptoms but that's definitely worth keeping in mind if raised levels all the time are an indicator. I definitely don't have great skin and get reasonably often breakouts but don't think it's acne by any means but maybe that is a symptom? My doctor pretty much laughed me out the room when I went there about my cycle not returning for a while jafter coming off contraception and said as I'm early twenties there's no point me going to see her unless I don't have a period for a year! Thanks so much for your response though.

@WazFilmFlam I last did a pregnancy test on Boxing Day (CD31) which was a definite negative, however the OPK's were all the same looking from CD19 (when I first though it was a positive OPK) to now, they're not all positive as such but very close, with the one on CD32 being the darkest test line I've had then going back down to 'almost' a positive OPK. I'll do another HPT next week but feel sure I'm not pregnant.

CD40 and another very definitely positive OPK. Negative preg test two days ago with FMU, this was about 7:15pm OPK. Will do another just before bed but feeling like I need to quit the whole OPK thing!