OPK help

[ttctet]

This is my first month using OPKs after no success conceiving without, but I don’t really know what I’m doing to be honest!

I dithered about using them this month, so I actually only got some yesterday. I’m on CD13 now, had a 5 day period (normal) and Flo app predicts ovulation yesterday.

The last few months I’ve been noticing very slight pain/twinges plus EWCM on about CD8/9 and this month was the same. I’m wondering if this is ovulation, and I ovulate early.

I took my first OPK yesterday and it was a negative with a faint line. I took another today, and it is negative with no line at all.

Does the line get fainter after ovulation? So this would mean I likely did ovulate a few days ago? I don’t really understand! Any pearls of wisdom would be great. I also woke up with sore boobs this morning, a lot earlier than I would normally get, so that’s thrown a spanner in the works too!

Hi @ttctet it's hard to say really. My line start faint get a little darker then go faint/non existent for a day or two before being positive all of a sudden. After ovulation they then fade off but do go up and down a little, whilst remaining negative, until AF. Each month varies a little so it's hard to tell x

It’s so hard to tell isn’t it!? The problem is you have hcg in your system pretty much all the time so will always get some kind of line. Also, your body can heat up to ovulate several times in a cycle before it actually happens so it’s really up and down...

I find the most reliable indicator for me is ewcm, so if I have ewcm I do an opk and check how dark the line is. Then probably need to do a couple of opks per day to catch the surge. Does that make any sense!?

I’d say if you’re getting ewcm early in your cycle, you probably ovulate then as I’ve not come across many people reporting ewcm when they’re not ovulating?!

My lines do tend to get lighter and lighter after ovulation (although I only tend to use them for another couple of days after positive OPK just to make sure!)

It does sound to me that you're ovulating early. Perhaps next month you might want to start using the OPKs as soon as AF is finished? As a previous poster suggested, once you have EWCM, take two OPKs a day.

It’s a minefield! Thanks all for your thoughts. I definitely get EWCM around day 8 and 9, so I think next month I will start using OPKs straight after AF.

I suppose that means a lot less time to DTD if I do ovulate that early!