Bit of an issue/what do I do!

[MademoiselleFrenglish]

Been TTC for over a year, have been testing for ovulation with easy@home strips pretty much the entire time, so I know what I’m doing. This month I decided (for some unknown reason) to use the expensive Clear Blue OPKs with the little purple machine, the ones that detect the 4 most fertile days. I read the instructions, but something’s gone wrong and I now am totally lost as to where I am in my cycle.

On the 9th Feb (CD12) I got the flashing smiley indicating I was coming up to ovulation, and I’ve been getting the same flashing smiley ever since (now on CD18), never the static one indicating ovulation.

A couple of days ago I found some leftover easy@home OPKs and have been using them alongside the CB and they’re not indicating ovulation/high levels or anything. I had some EWCM around the weekend, as well as some cramping, so I figured that CB was shit and that I had ovulated. But if that’s the case then it’s a bit early for me, I usually ovulate around CD16-18.

I’m not worried overall as we’ve been DTD every other day all month, I’m just a bit pissed off that I’ve wasted money on the CB ones and that I now don’t know when to expect AF/test for pregnancy. At the same time it’s been an extremely stressful month so if I have conceived then it’ll be a bloody miracle.

I don’t suppose there’s any way for me to confirm which part of my cycle I’m at now, is there?

In my experience I've used the CB OPK twice and although it worked for me I can see why not everyone likes them. I also had the flashing smiley for a while before I got the static smiley. If you still have sticks to use I would say there's no harm in continuing it for a couple more days since you usually ovulate around this time. I ran out and was about to give up but decided to order more which led to me finally getting a static smiley the next day. And it worked since I conceived that cycle too. I'm not exactly sure why the flashing smiley is displayed for so long. I've heard that it could be because of the estrogen rise being gradual. I know it can be so frustrating. I was basically obsessed with opks and pregnancy testing and not knowing when you ovulate is annoying. In your position I would do a couple more tests with the CB and your easy@home opks for 2-3 days but the decision is yours. Do what feels right and less stressful for you. Sending baby dust x

I think the machine is a massive rip off. Somewhere in the instructions it will tell you that once you get a flashing smiley you will continue to get a flashing smiley until you get a solid - regardless of what the test actually says.

If you break open the test, you'll see its exactly the same as a normal cheapie test, all the machine does is interpret the results. But as above, it doesn't matter what the test says once you've had one flashing smiley.

Fertility doctors do not recommend using ovulation tests. They are extremely unreliable and the OB ones are very expensive. It's a tax on hope 😔

@flyingbeet Thanks! I think I have 1 or 2 CB sticks left, so I'll use them up as well as the last of the easy@home tests I have and see what happens. Quite annoyed that I turned to CB as it was going fine with the easy@home ones (minus actually getting pregnant, of course!) and feel like they've really got me off course now. Frustrating!

@RNBrie I do now have my doubts about the machine, mostly I just find it a bit tricky. I've had a couple of months of not testing at all but overall I do prefer keeping track of what's going on. Gives me a semblance of control, I guess.