Any of you use OPK's?

[runnergrl]

I am very interested in these since we are trying to avoid that special time fore the next few months.

If you use them or have before, what brand was most reliable? I hate guessing when I ovulate and want to be sure I am avoiding the correct day/s.

any advice would be great!

 

[pink_bow]

Ooh I'd be very interested in the answer to this too (sorry hijaking your thread) x

 

[mushmouth]

I've used them this month, IC's from ebay and I'm very confident it showed me the day before I OV'd - BUTfrom reading up on it, sperm can survive upto 7 days (seems a bit extreme) and the IC's only tell you max of 48 hrs in advance, and only if you catch the surge during the day (if you wee at the wrong time it seems you can get a neg :S confused much?)

I used a website that you put all your cycle info on, and it tells you when your next AF will be, and when your OV is meant to be - it predicted 4th for me, with a leutal phase of 14 days, it happened on the 5thand my period was a day later than norm - so keeping the LP at 14 days - I hope this makes sense and helps a little

 

[LimeFerret]

We use them for TTA, But really just to figure out my wild cycles better so I can accurately predict OV each month. I use the ones from saveontests.com because they are always running specials... sometimes from ebay too.

 

[runnergrl]

bump

 

[runnergrl]

mush, what website is that, where you enter all of your info?

 

[poppy]

I used opks when I concieved my son. They are really good if your cycle is fairly regular as you don't really want to test every day using them, as that would get expensive. I used the Clearblue Digital ones - I thought they were brilliant. You get a smiley face when it detects your LH surge (you get a surge of the lutenizing hormone about 12 - 24 hours (approx) before you ovulate) - although it is good to try bding a few days before your suspected ovulation as it takes a while for the sperm to swim up to meet the egg. I found the tests really easy to read as it would have driven me insane trying to squint at lines and decide whether the test line was as dark as the control line.

I used the OPKs for three out of four cycles TTC and got pregnant twice using them (unfortunately, one ended in early miscarriage) and my son was born in October 2008, so I would definately recommend them to someone wanting to chart their cycle.

As someone else posted, I wouldn't rely on them for contraception as sperm can live for a while in the body and you can sometimes ovulate early or late (depending on things like stress).

Good luck getting your BFP when you decide to start TTC.

xxx