Hi there,
I too have been charting and using OPK's for a while and this is my seventh cycle. When I first started using OPK's I got nothing at all on the test sticks, they used to all be white. Then I bought some from a different e-bay store for the same price as the other ones but a more sensitive type. They measured 15 mIU and are intended for women who need a more sensitive test strip. Well, they worked for me and I found I got positives on two cycles. I didn't detect positives on the other cycles, but got two test lines around the time I thought I should ovulate, but they were never as dark as each other so I guess I missed my peak ... easy to do as it can last for only 12 hours and sometimes work would get in the way of me piddling on a stick.
So, perhaps you could try these sticks instead of the ones you have. I bought mine from an ebay shop called Fertility Plan.
It's worth noting that 5% of women do not get a reading on OPK's, so you could be one of those.
As for detecting ovulation. Well, I have noticed that FF can show cross hairs on their graphs for women who don't actually ovulate. If your charting pattern shows a slight variation, with the temps rising in the second half, they of course the cross hairs will show up and give you hope that you have ovulated. It's not necessarily the case though and the best example of this would be Ney Ney's charts. She was shown cross hairs on several of her charts and when she went to her doctor's, it was confirmed that a few of these cycles had in fact been anovulatory.
It would be a good idea I think for you to make an appointment with your doctor or health nurse and ask them for a blood test to see if you are in fact ovulating. Although I have not had this done myself, I am considering it in the near future as I would like to confirm this for myself. I believe it is conducted around CD21 of your cycle and the blood test can show the level of hormones in your system and whether or not you have ovulated. Tansey has had this done and she would be a good person to ask about it. It measures the level of progesterone in your body I believe, although I am not an expert and need to find out a little more myself.
I realise too that 8 months is not that long to try, but agree that you should check things out if your doctor is willing to help you, just to put your mind at ease. I am sure they will understand and what are you doing only trying to help yourself relax a little.
Best of luck and hope you get the answers you need. Your last chart looks OK, but the dotted lines tell you that you could have put a little more information in to confirm ovulation better. Maybe CM or OPK's could have made all the difference. It's worth messing around with it to see what's missing, you know put in fictitious CM or OPK results to see how the cross hairs would change an take them out afterwards. I've learned a lot by doing this.
Hope this helps and sorry for waffling on for ages.
