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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

Original poster

Ovulation-LH test strips!

3 replies

Tealover11 · 02/12/2025 21:15

Hi everyone! Long time lurker not much of a poster, but just wondered if anyone can share some insight. Desperately trying for DC2. Having been trying for several months with no luck, however this month I have tried using ovulation strips, to work out when I ovulate, as my cycles are really irregular and are anything between 30-40+ days. According to my NC and Flo App I am due to ovulate this week. I had sore boobs last week and thought I had “fertile” CM last week however that would of been way to early in my cycle to ovulate , and if I’m honest I have been feeling quite low with keep TTC every month, so just thought stick to the apps
for guidance, as it’s mental torture keep thinking I have missed crucial days or not baby dancing enough( DH and I both work a lot and we have a special needs daughter so baby dancing isn’t always the priority) So Monday I pop into boots and buy their own LH strips. This is where I am confused, I have hardly any fertile CM it’s very creamy (sorry TMI) but I have been testing atleast twice a day and I am so confused , Monday afternoon LH surge test line dark but not darker then control line. Monday evening very faint test line. With that I put it down to ok I must ovulated on Monday ….. however tested this evening , and test line has got dark (not as dark as contol line) but lot darker then Monday evening when it was pretty much stark white . Surely doesn’t the line get lighter as days go on if you have ovulated? Apologies if I sound stupid and for this long post I feel like I am trying to understand my own body. For the record , my cycles are literally all over the place, I have thyroid problems and have been changing dosages of medication, and I have lost a huge amount of weight, which maybe impacting my cycles.

OP posts:
Plumchumm · 03/12/2025 14:11

If you have irregular cycles then you probably have pcos like me. That means your app won’t know when you ovulate as it changes and is unpredictable. You need to be taking ovulation strips every day to see where the real surge it. Women’s LH goes up and down all throughout the month, so you’ll only know your real surge if you have a bigger snapshot. Also it’s only positive if the rest line is as strong as or stronger than control line.
women with pcos (irregular cycles) can have higher amounts of LH so if you see it randomly is stronger in the morning but still not ‘as strong’, that’s just the normal fluctuations of your hormones, it’s not ovulation.

Don’t feel discouraged, ovulation tests made trying for a baby a lot less stressful for me because after doing the tests every day for a few cycles I started to learn what my personal symptoms and pattern is. That takes the pressure off of baby dancing all the time and just catching the fertile period instead. :)

for me personally my signs are: tingly breasts, a bit of nausea, sharp persistent cramping in ovary area, high libido, cm changes and cervix is higher. Sometimes I even get a day of feeling run down. If I feel this and I see a strong line on my tests, I start testing multiple times a day to catch my peak.
right after i ovulate, my cm turns thick quickly, libido goes away, hungry and tired.

I’ve only learned to spot these because I’ve tested long enough to make the association. I’ll also get lighter LH tests from then on.

I recommend buying cheaper strips on Amazon, they come in packs of 30 and they’re green.

Original poster
Tealover11 · 08/12/2025 18:24

Plumchumm · 03/12/2025 14:11

If you have irregular cycles then you probably have pcos like me. That means your app won’t know when you ovulate as it changes and is unpredictable. You need to be taking ovulation strips every day to see where the real surge it. Women’s LH goes up and down all throughout the month, so you’ll only know your real surge if you have a bigger snapshot. Also it’s only positive if the rest line is as strong as or stronger than control line.
women with pcos (irregular cycles) can have higher amounts of LH so if you see it randomly is stronger in the morning but still not ‘as strong’, that’s just the normal fluctuations of your hormones, it’s not ovulation.

Don’t feel discouraged, ovulation tests made trying for a baby a lot less stressful for me because after doing the tests every day for a few cycles I started to learn what my personal symptoms and pattern is. That takes the pressure off of baby dancing all the time and just catching the fertile period instead. :)

for me personally my signs are: tingly breasts, a bit of nausea, sharp persistent cramping in ovary area, high libido, cm changes and cervix is higher. Sometimes I even get a day of feeling run down. If I feel this and I see a strong line on my tests, I start testing multiple times a day to catch my peak.
right after i ovulate, my cm turns thick quickly, libido goes away, hungry and tired.

I’ve only learned to spot these because I’ve tested long enough to make the association. I’ll also get lighter LH tests from then on.

I recommend buying cheaper strips on Amazon, they come in packs of 30 and they’re green.

Thank you this is very helpful! Yes I do think I have pcos I haven’t been diagnosed but I do believe I have because of my cycles. Like now I feel like I could come on my period but it’s day 24 and that’s way too early for me lol! I am going to buy some cheap ones off Amazon as the boots ones only have 5 strips in them. Is weight gain a symptom as well? I did gain a lot of weight and I put it down to having hashimotos but I have always had really long heavy periods or they go the other way like light on literally for like a day or so

OP posts:
Plumchumm · 08/12/2025 20:57

@Tealover11 No problem :) If you feel like you're getting your period, you are probably ovulating right now. I usually ovulate on day 24 haha. Take a test!

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