When to bring out the opks?

[Yarnie]

Hi everyone

I'm looking for a bit of advice about when I should start poas to check for ovulation.

I'm not how you determine your cycle length. Is it from first day of flow to first day of flow? Assuming it is, I have a 27 day cycle.

From my limited research I see that ovulation should occur around CD13. I guess to make sure you don't miss ovulation, you can start poas earlier - particularly when, like me, you're not sure exactly when you ovulate?

What do you ladies do? I'm on CD8 today.

I'm also charting bbt, but I'm aware this is only really helpful for determining ovulation in retrospect.

Thanks in advance.

Do not blithely assume that ovulation occurs around day 13. It certainly does not always happen 2 weeks before the start of your next period. Ovulation is not an exact science and can occur earlier, later or not at all in ANY given cycle.

If your menstrual cycle is regular in nature you are more likely than not to be ovulating on a regular basis.

Do not get too hung up with either using temp charts or OPK's as both methods are not infallible.

Thanks, Attila. That was kind of what I was getting at. Guides say ovulation should be roughly around 13 days, but I'm aware that it varies from individual to individual and even from month to month - hence I was wondering what sort of a buffer others gave themselves to have the best chance of catching it.

I also don't want to spend a fortune on opks, so don't want to test pointlessly.

I'm trying to get up to speed with my body and its cycles and, given that I don't know when I ovulate, I thought opks were a good way of working that out, so we can "focus our energies" at that right point.

I'm a scientist by training so, regrettably, have first hand experience of the infallibility of assays and biological specimens