Can someone explain OPKS?

[24GinDrinkingOnceTheKidsInBed]

I’ve been doing OPKS for a couple months, but I just don’t understand them.

I understand:
Line has to be as dark or darker to be positive
Ovulation occurs roughly 24-36 hours after positive.

What I don’t understand is why when I’m doing them, I’ll get a pretty clear line (not positive but clear) - then it decreases throughout the day, then next morning clear again, and decreases throughout the day, but it’s never positive.

I just don’t understand what’s going on and I thought they would help us determine when I ovulate but it’s just making everything more confusing and now I’m at a loss. We just want another baby; why is that so hard

I used cheap strips. Tested at 2pm and 10pm on day 10 - 16 and always caught a positive.. Usually day 12 for me.

I know not everyone rates them but we're using the Clearblue Advanced Digital OPKs and honestly it's made life a lot easier for me.

I have a 29-31 day cycle and started testing from day 9 as the instructions suggested. CD10 I got my first flashing smiley for high fertility and got four days total of those then today I got a solid smiley.

I know some people don't rate them but for me it's tied in very accurately with my own personal timing estimates as well as all my symptoms of ovulation so I'm pretty sure it's been very accurate for me this month.

I looked at using the cheapies but they just look so confusing to me, I'm an idiot and I'd rather keep things simple

Oh also, I test with my first pee when I wake up on a morning, whatever time that is... sometimes I need to pee at 6am other times I can hold until I get up at 8am but I always test with the first pee of the day and I don't test again at any other point as I drink gallons of water so it seems a bit pointless haha :) I hope that helps!
It is all a bit confusing, especially at first - there's so much information and stuff to learn, I found it a bit overwhelming too! x

I’m day 15 today; the top is 5am wee, bottom is about 15 minutes ago.

It just never gets darker than that top one to be honest.

Cheap strips you don't use fm wee. Try at 2pm op.
.

How long are your cycles usually? If you're day 15 you may have missed your surge so it might not get any darker now anyway but try not to drink for a couple of hours and hold your pee until later :)

In the meantime, I guess just dtd as much as you can to make sure you don't miss your window while you're trying to figure it out

Could you try a different brand? I found some brands (even different batches of the same brand) weren't as good. There's plenty out there to try.

Cycles are hit and miss (which is why I’m concerned); anywhere from 31-56 days, I’ll have a few months of 31-35 day cycles, then it will switch up and have a few months of 43-56 day cycles.

On a 31 day cycle, you'd ovulate between CD15-20; on 56 day cycle it would be CD 41-44.

Also, not to worry you, but some longer cycles may be annovulatory.

Do you take temperatures too?

I don’t temp take.. purely because I know I’d be unreliable, I’d mostly forget to do it at the same time, or would be woken by DD at 5am which would knock the timing off.

How long have you been doing the opks? My ovulation was super late this month and I didn't get a positive until day 20, I was despairing! I'd keep on going if I were you testing twice a day, maybe 11 and 5. Do you have any other signs to look out for? Ewcm? Soft cervix? Might help narrow things down a bit.

Been doing these for 3 cycles now. I tried them before with DD and didn’t really
Get the jist and was just doing one a day and wasn’t 100% on what to look for. So wasn’t too keen to try again but then did some more research on them and gave it a go.

The first month seemed fine, had a peak and it seemed obvious and straight forward but now I just get more confused every time
I do one.

I do look at CM. Which again changes up more than I think it should to be honest. There never seems to be a real pattern other than a period of being compete dried up and no CM at all for about a week after AF.

If your cycle is very irregular then the ovulation day will change, as it's the pre-ovulation phase that changes rather than the post-ovulation phase, which stays about the same. So if you're going through a 56 day cycle you wouldn't expect ovulation until around day 42, which would explain why you're not seeing anything yet.

What day was your peak on cycle 1 and did you get ewcm then? I'm just thinking that if you go on cm then you might be able to narrow down the testing window a bit? I was driving myself nuts testing multiple times a day and then realised that actually I have a solid 3 days of ewcm before I get my peak, so next month I will wait for that before I start testing in earnest.

It was CD16 if I remember correctly. - I can’t remember if I had EWCM.

However, I’ve got EWCM today; but I’ve run out of OPKS. Which could be a blessing as I think I’d start treating my hair out to see another faint line on one of them.

Well if you have ewcm I'd get in the bedroom quick! Also, I know you said that you wouldn't do temping because you thought your daughter would wake you up so it wasn't worth it. I also have an equally wakeful toddler and rarely get a full stretch and am often bedhopping/taking temps at odd times, but actually have still managed to detect ovulation. It may be worth just giving it a go to see what happens.