Help interpreting OPK/Clear Blue Advanced please!

[atgnat]

My Clear Blue test was negative the first day (as it always should be), flashing smiley for 2 days and now a static smiley. I'm only on CD10 so it's weird for that reason, but also my usual OPKs (which I've seen positives on in previous cycles so I know what it should look like) are showing negative! I took the Clear Blue test out of the reader and it does look fairly positive. I really don't understand the discrepancy! All tests were done with the same cup of urine at the same time.

This happened to me both cycles I’ve used them. please also note you can’t read CB strips out of its reader! They don’t work like that!

cycle 1:
CB - static on CD17 (flashing on CD16)
OPK - peaked on CD20
BFP: 10-12dpo (I went off the OPK timings)
Had a chemical so the CB could have been correct but my HCG strips were just low because of CP.

cycle 2: (current cycle)
CB - static on CD13 (no flashing beforehand)
OPK - unsure as I was taking them not at the right time (lol) but I think it peaked on CD20

but also my CP might have been playing up so who knows! My cycles are normally 32 days long (roughly - had a 35 in December because of stress and a 29 in February for no reason).

I would just keep testing and see what happens! At the end of the day, just keep having sex regularly as everything else is out of your control no matter what the OPKs say!

i think the CB just shows static at any surge of LH, as opposed to THE surge. I think if I don’t get a BFP this month, I’ll try their pink digital ones! Or I might just stop doing the whole thing for a month and have sex 🤷‍♀️

xx

"i think the CB just shows static at any surge of LH, as opposed to THE surge."

That's what I was wondering really! Though the first and only other time I used them they matched the cheapie OPK strips identically. Then I've had 2 weird cycles in which I didn't use them. I used them again to try and make sense of this cycle if it turns into another weird one! I am TTC but was hoping the CB tests would clarify things but it seems to have only made it more confusing!

Can't you read them like a regular LH test strip out of the reader? I thought they basically worked the same and just the "computer" reads the strips and compares to the previous ones in the cycle?

@atgnat yeah, I think the CB tests might be more sensitive and show an open window of 24-36 hours before an egg is released whereas the strips are probably more 12-24 hours!

what Opk brand do you use?

so if you are using the purple one, it also detects an estrogen rise (flashing) so it always has two lines no matter what but I’m not sure if the darkness of the lines count for anything! The computer only really compares it to the previous day. I think the threshold for the LH is 40miu but I’m not sure what that even means 😂

the whole LH surge thing is stresssssful! I think I might just take a month off and have sex regularly next cycle if this one doesn’t work out 🙈

I looked it up and apparently the threshold for my cheapie strips is 20 miu/l, so that's even more confusing! 😂

I thought the lines were like the usual the LH tests - i.e. a control and then another line that has to get close to the control line to be positive. Maybe I should look that up, how the estrogen info is stored etc ..

Good luck! I'm often tempted to "take a month off" tracking but I know I'd regret it for one reason or another - mostly in my case because my cycles seem to be changing and it feels all downhill from here (I'm 37)...