curse those opks

[banjaxed]

I'm cursing the day I bought these opks ... I just feel that they are so unreliable!

Last month I didn't get a +ve at all, but did get 3 days of pink lines quite late in my cycle (around day 20 I think).

This month I got a strong pink (nearly +ve or +ve, depending on how you looked at it) yesterday and it's fainter tonight. But it's SOOOOO dependent on how much you've had to drink in the day!

So now I'm wondering if I did get a +ve test last month, but just drank too much to see it, and whether I'm +ve tonight or not since I did one test at 7pm which had hardly any pink on it and then waited an hour or so without drinking and got a darker pink line but nowhere near +ve.

Grrr. BDd last night anyway, and might be able to persuade DH to tonight.

Just wondered how many days most other people get any pink lines for? I'm just using any pink as an indication of possible impending ovulation since there ares so many variables (time of day, hydration, etc.).

If I go by EWCM, I seem to have had a gush of it yesterday mid-morning (day 15) when I went to the loo but nothing since. Is that unusual? Sometimes it takes until day 20 as I said for it to appear, and like I said, blink and you miss it.

Sorry, just needed a wee rant

OPKs are a bit of a pain. My gynae once called them "worse than useless"! Especially if you think you might have PCOS then they are best avoided.

For me, the only ones that ever worked are the digital ones. I chart my temps and am quite in tune with my body so I used them to confirm what I already suspected. With the non-digi ones I don't think I ever got a test line which was darker than the control line. Re the digi ones, someone on one of these threads said that you can use Persona sticks in a Clearblue OPK holder, thus reducing the cost of OPKs to £9 per cycle (from £23!).

With OPKs the best thing to do is to take them at the same time of day every day. The best time to do them is early afternoon when you have not been to the loo for a few hours. This is because your body makes LH in the night/early morning and it makes its way into your pee over the course of the day.

Re the EWCM, it's pretty normal to have a gush of it when you go to the loo. What I find is that in the run up to ovulation I get more EWCM each day, but up until right before ov it is not constant and all day. Then all of a sudden there is loads for maybe a day. I record it all as EWCM on my chart though because those days are potentially fetile.

HTH

Thanks for your reply mrsHAppy.

I really don't want to start obsessing too much about ttc (I got these opks to work out what was going on after my mmc in Dec), but now I've had two cycles with drastically different ovulation, I feel a bit reluctant to give them up despite my skepticism. Like I said, the appearance of any pink line seems to be the best indication of something going on (I've no line today). Buying a digital kit feels like it would be too much like desperation for me - no offence to you at all - I just don't like admitting to myself that this might be a long-term thing worth investing in, and it seems like too much effort on my part to track my cycle is a big turn-off for DH so temping would make him roll his eyes.

I try to test in the late afternoon when I get home as that's the first chance I get to visit the loo after lunch (crazy life). But I'm often gulping water from my bottle throughout the afternoon because I easily get dehydration headaches.

As for EWCM - I'm sure I used to get more of it, but now I've been paying attention I honestly only seem to get it once on one day in my cycle. It's either watery or creamy either side. Perhaps it's time for grapefruit juice ...or just age (33). It's just all a bit exasperating. Here's hoping that Tuesday's BD was the lucky one!

By digital I mean digital OPKs, not a fertility monitor. They simply give a smiley face when they detect the LH surge rather than you having to spend time analysing lines. They are disposable - not a long term bit of kit.

I drink a tonne of water (at least 3.5l per day) and I don't think it has ever affected my OPK results. I just try not to pee for a few hours before testing.

There are people who never get a positive on OPKs, though. I didn't on a previous cycle and still got pregnant so go figure! I hope Tuesday did the trick for you.