So how long is LH surge?

[Mij]

Using OPK sticks for the one month only, just to check what I thought was happening was (and it worked TTC DD1 cos I was ovulating much earlier than I thought, ditched the wee sticks after we knew that and got PG straight away) and cos my cycle has changed since first pregnancy, and got no line, followed by a couple of very faint, so still -ve, results followed by no line again.

It was around the right time for me - days 11-12ish. CM not nearly as abundant as before pregnancy 1. Still bfing, nearly nightweaned (dd 25mnths), ie she goes 6.30pm - 5am with no milk, and I'm 37.

I haven't been able to test until 6.30ish each day, which I know is quite late.

Q: the two faint lines caught the pre-surge and tailing off, but not the surge? Or do I have half-arsed hormones and I'm not actually ovulating?

I've heard others say that their LH surge can be pretty brief. How long is it supposed to last?

Any contributions gratefully received...

Here you go

peeonastick.com

It's a really informative site, should hopefully cover most of your questions re opk lines I would have thought.

Am not an expert, but I think it's possible that if you're testing once a day in the evenings, you could miss a surge in between. Maybe get a cheapy lot of opk's off ebay so you can afford to test 2 or 3 times a day to check?

The ones you get in the chemist seem to me to be a huge rip-off, and you get so few in a pack it's pretty useless if you're not sure when a surge may be.

I am also 37.

1st month TTC I peed on OPK sticks between days 8 and 16, twice a day around day 12-14 and got a big fat zero. No lines, nada. Cost me a small fortune to see absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, temperatures confirmed I ovulated, so for next month I ditched OPK sticks and did lots of BD between days 8 and 16. I'm now 4 weeks pregnant.

Moral of the story: Forget the OPK, jump your DH often

CoteDAzur, thanks for that. Our problem is that DP has somehow managed to arrange a lot of work away from home that coincides almost exactly with our hot zones until Christmas, so I wanted to use the OPK to confirm when I was ovulating (in terms of a few days, not to the hour) so I could both try to catch him if he's around, but then also not spend two weeks wondering if I'm PG if we'd actually missed the date completely.

When trying for DD1, did OPK for one month and discovered I was Oing earlier than I thought. Got pg next month.

So definitely not wedded to the kits, was just using for one month to check what was going on.

Have since heard several other stories of kits showing negative results but PGs following.

Thanks for the link PixelHerder. That was really useful. The bottom line seems to be that a surge could last only 10 hours for some women, so yes I could definitely have missed it. As the faint lines I got were around the time I was assuming I was Oing, based on other signs and previous experience, I've got my answer and can ditch the pee sticks.

Thanks everyone.

Now just have to get DP to cancel some work in the next couple of months so we're in the same city at the appropriate time!