OPKs question

[tingalayo]

I've been using OPKs for a few months and they still confuse me a bit. They say once you get your peak, you ovulate 12-48 hours later. My peak seems to last about 24 hours though before it falls. Do I ovulate 12-48 hours after the first time I saw a peak, or the last time I saw a peak?

Which OPKs are you using? Are you uploading the test to an app to get an actual figure? I'll attach mine. It is still just high for a few days? You should probably only have one peak. I don't really know but I'd imagine DTD every 2 days from when you hit into fertility week and you should be fairly covered, maybe daily when you are in "peak". The sperm take a while to get to where it's needed so you want it there and waiting when you do ovulate.

No I don't use that app, I just notice that the test line stays darker than the control line for a whole day. We DTD daily until it drops to clearly negative, so I'm not so worried about that, mainly I just want to know how long my luteal phase is.

Hello @tingalayo tbh I think everyone is different and it can even vary each cycle. I think on average most ovulate 12-24 hours after peak opk and 24-48 after first positive but it can be up to 72 hours.

I started temping this month because it helps confirm when you actually ovulate. I found that I ovulated later than I thought. I got my positive and peak opks on CD14, they were negative by CD15 but I didn’t ovulate until CD17 so seems I’m closer to the 72 hours. First month temping though so unsure if that will be the case every cycle or a one off.

I would recommend temping if you want to get a better idea of when you ovulate but if you don’t want the extra thing to worry about aslong as you’re dtd from when your opk is positive and a few days after you should be covered.

Sending lots of luck

I always thought that once opks turned negative you had already ovulated but that wasn’t the case for me I ovulated 2 days after my opks turned negative after peak so worth mentioning I think.

Hi,
Using the Easy at Home strips you ovulate 24 hours (ish) after Peak (as they are less sensitive than CB that detects 48 hours ish before.
Peak can last for 12 hours (my specialist told me) but will drop to low after you ovulate.

It's best to use with bbt so you can confirm ovulation 😊

Hope that helps x

So if you get Peak at some point on a Monday you should ovulate at some point on the Tuesday I believe. Then opk should drop

But like PP said everyone is different ♥️

This is my BBT chart. Not sure if it will be helpful to see but the green + is when I had positive/peak opks and you can see they went - negative the next day but that big dip you can see is ovulation happening and the big rise is 24 hours after ovulation.

If I hadn’t have tracked my BBT this cycle I probably would have stopped dtd too early and assumed I ovulated on CD15 (when opk dropped back to negative) rather than CD17 as my chart shows.

I’m only 6dpo today so not sure if I’ve caught or not yet 🤞🏼 But I found it helpful personally to track BBT.

Sending everyone baby dust ✨

Oh, more complicated than I thought :( I don't think temping would work for me because my sleep is quite disrupted by a certain toddler so I guess I just have to cover the whole period and hope for the best x

@Newbiemg that's a really clear chart, text book like! Can I just ask, how did you get FF to note the dpo and the luteal line on the chart? mine never does that and can't seem to find an option on the settings. Are you using the paid version?

@tingalayo I agree with @Newbiemg - unless you chart BBT, you can't really pinpoint ovulation, it's always a guess. But I think a general rule is you ovulate the day after you get your first peak OPK. I use CB, and only test FMU, and as @FreckledMouse said, the sensitivity is much greater, so you could even ovulate 48 hours after. It's an absolute minefield and it's really not that straightforward. The peak also changes from person to person, as in, some people will only have a very short LH peak and won't last more than 6-12 hours, whereas some will see this for more than 24 hours. So one rule doesn't fit all. Sorry it's not helpful, but as long as you DTD to cover this entire length, it should be OK.

Hope no one minds me jumping on, I'm confused with this whole ovulation malarkey.

I've tested this morning with two OPK's from Home Bargains, one at 8am and one at 9.45am and they both really strong lines.

I did OPK testing with the easy at home ones from CD7 to CD15 then I ran out so I didn't bother re ordering but from the easy at home ones it appeared I got my strongest line on CD11 so if I ovulated the day after on CD12, and I'm now CD21, I'm 9DPO.

Why would I be getting positive OPK's now? 😩

@allthingssparkly I'm not sure about that one. When you did easy at home, after CD11, did the lines fade up to CD15? I never really test after I get a peak, so I don't know why you'd get a second LH peak. Hope someone else would be able to answer. I've heard that sometimes OPKs show positives when you're pregnant, but 9 DPO maybe too early to catch it on an OPK. Sorry I'm unable to help.

@Tinkerbell098 Yeah after CD11 the lines all faded right upto when I stopped testing at CD15.

Thank you 🤍 I was going to hold out doing a pregnancy test until the weekend but not sure if I can wait now with seeing these OPK results this morning 😬

@allthingssparkly good luck if you decide to test and let us know xx

@Tinkerbell098 Thanks so much, I will do 😊

[quote Tinkerbell098]@Newbiemg that's a really clear chart, text book like! Can I just ask, how did you get FF to note the dpo and the luteal line on the chart? mine never does that and can't seem to find an option on the settings. Are you using the paid version?[/quote]
Hello @Tinkerbell098 this is my first cycle using it so I think I get 30 day free trial of the full version so I haven’t paid but yes I think I’ve got the paid version for 30 days