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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

TTC OPK vs Tracking Temperature

9 replies

Melody27 · 04/01/2021 21:30

Hi all

I came off the pill in March and we started to use condoms as I am being investigated for endometriosis. Now decided we want to ttc and have been trying for 2 months unsuccessfully, thinking of now taking it a bit more seriously. And what’s better OKP vs tracking temperature? Xx

OP posts:
mamaatthegym · 04/01/2021 21:59

OPKs will detect when you’re about to ovulate. Temping detects when you have ovulated. I never temped for various reasons. I’m too forgetful and I don’t always get a restful nights sleep. Plus I don’t really care when I’ve ovulated, I care more about knowing when I’m about to Grin

Just my personal opinion! X

Chanel05 · 05/01/2021 12:10

I did both but I found that tracking temps can make you a bit obsessive in comparing charts etc.

ChinChilly · 05/01/2021 12:12

I’m thinking the same, I’ve been using OPKs since August and no joy I’m thinking of temping for the next cycle or even not tracking at all

Bells3032 · 05/01/2021 12:14

I couldn't get a consistent measure with temprature. my temprature spikes all over the place (maybe cos I often sleep with a fan on and also toss and turn a lot at night). Find OPKs easier to do

Bells3032 · 05/01/2021 12:15

Plus temp is only once you have already ovulated so a bit late if TTC. OPKs usually give you two to four days notice to DTD over those days

Bleepers · 05/01/2021 12:22

I did both and found it very helpful. The positive OPK in itself doesn't actually mean you will 100% ovulate - this is confirmed by the temperature rise. This is why I did both. It helped confirm that I actually ovulate 48 hours after the OPK confirmation. I conceived quickly both times and think temping helped. I'd recommend Natural Cycles if you're prepared to pay for an app x

Moominmiss · 05/01/2021 12:29

The best option would be both together.

Opk’s will help you hopefully pick up your lh surge, but cannot confirm that you have actually ovulated seeing as it’s quite common to get a peak on an opk, and have a failed attempt at ovulation, meaning you’d body gears up to ovulate, then doesn’t.

So if you were solely going on opk’s you could easily assume you’re about to ovulate because of a peak reading, only to then fail, and your body reattempt later in the cycle.

Temps will confirm that ovulation has taken place as you will see a temp rise for 3 consecutive days.

I found the thought of having to wake up at the same time every day to consistently take my temp far too daunting, so after 12 months of ttc I invested in an OvuSense monitor. I wear it internally every night and it takes my core body temp reading every few minutes throughout the night then in the morning I connect it to my phone and it gives a reading that is even more accurate than regular bbt. I don’t have to worry about broken sleep, or sleeping with a window open etc affecting my temps as it’s all don’t internally over the course of the night. Not just based on one reading in the morning.

Temping can become obsessive though.

If you just want a general idea of when you might want to focus dtd then opk’s should be able to give you a decent enough picture. Just be warned as I said that it is possible to get multiple surges in a cycle. Not all women will though. I use opk’s too and it’s always correlated with my temps. But equally I know women who judging by opk’s would have been certain they ovulated, only for their temps to show that they haven’t.

Hope some of that helps!

Juno231 · 05/01/2021 14:57

Moominmiss is spot on. Ideally you take them both as OPKs can often give you a false sense of security that you've ovulated.

I started with just OPKs but ended up adding BBT into the mix when I kept second guessing the OPKs. I.e. had I missed my peak or was it yet to come, how do I know this isn't a false peak and that I won't have another one later in the cycle (if your body fails to ovulate, it just tries again a few days later) etc. BBT gave me much needed peace of mind.

Tina8800 · 05/01/2021 15:16

For me OKP helped a lot. Ovulation tests can be really expensive, and you need to use them every day to make sure you dont miss it. For me the best is the PreMom cheap test strips from Amazon, it is with a free app. Used every day and Ive found out that I ovulate late (d19).
I tried tempting but my body temperature all over a place so it just really confused me and made me stressed.

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