Trying ovulation sticks

[tegan]

I bought a pack of ovulation sticks from asda on the weekend (only the cheap ones) out of curiosity. Are they any good.

I have never had any luck with any ovulation sticks. So I've saved myself some money and purchased a book called Taking Charge of your fertility instead. It is very enlightening and I would highly recommend it.

Happy peeing on a stick

I only really liked the digital clear blue ones as they give a deffinate yes or no.

Hi MoveIt. When you say you 'never had any luck' with the sticks. Do you mean you never got them to give a sensible reading, or that they didn't help produce BFP at the end of the month? [intrigued smiley]

I've been using sticks for a months - only cheapies, and I never got them to produce more than a faint line. Trying not to panic, and this month bought the expensive ones, AND booked reflexology. I love excuses to spend .

Only use the digital ones as I got v. confused and more stressed trying to determine the strength of the line.

I've only ever used ClearBlue and I've never had a problem with them. I have to use them as I need to chart for fertility treatment and the doctor recommended ClearBlue. I was going to buy some cheapy ones this time around, but as DH said, the cost of treatment is so high, why scimp on a pack of sticks?

OK, more pricey ones it is then.

Hi milly, I never got them to give a sensible or accurate answer.

I got a false positive on a clearblue last cycle.
Smiley face on CD20 and AF finally arrived on CD50, after many many BFNs.

If you're irregular then opks don't really work because you can get positives.

Otherwise, they're a great (yet expensive) way to tell when you're ovulating. You could always chart temperatures, I've also got iliketomoveit's book and find this much more helpful.

I meant, you can get false positives with an irregular cycle.

OK got the expensive digital ones. Still no surge. CD 12 of a 27 day cycle. Well never mind a surge - still no reading at all. I am not even getting a line at all. Well only a couple of times in the last 2 months I've got a an inkling of a line if I stare at it really hard, in the right light through rose tinted glasses you can see a second line .
I guess this means I am not producing enough LH and should go the GP?

Hi MillyH Keep trying! I've used the sticks for my last 2 cycles and they always make me really p*ed off! When I am about to give up they go blue, and this has always been a day or so later than I thought

They are not False positives it just mean you have had LH surge and not ovulated which we all do sometimes whether we have irregular cycles or not.

I used to ebay cheapies for 4 or 5 months and found them to be really easy to use and accurate. I wouldnt waste my money on the expensive ones really, they all do the same thing and i resent paying Clearblue 1000% more for an identical product just because of the packaging !

Tx for that Hootie! Yes, p*ssed off describes it totally. I'll keep going, but it I don't get some sort of a line this time, definitely of to the doc's. For him to laught at me I'sure !
If you don't mind me asking - did you get a faint line on any of your non-surge days? Or was it all just complete blanks?

Hi Sorry didn't reply, no internet for days!! Sometimes I got a faint line and sometimes it was totally blank. When it does go blue the colours are really strong though. Had a blood test 4 days after the LH surge this cycle so should hopefully find out whether I ovulated or not later on today.