Calculating ovulation day using OPKs

[JWC13]

I'm curious to see how you ladies using OPKs determine which day is Ovulation day. For example:

Wednesday evening: positive OPK
Thursday morning & evening: positive OPK
Friday: negative OPK

I know that you ovulate 12-36 hours after your LH surge- BUT does that mean after the first surge or after the surge in general? During actual ovulation I don't believe that you receive a positive OPK so I'm thinking that I ovulated on Friday.

What do you all think? How do you determine which day you ovulated if you only use OPKs and don't temp?

 

[Tove]

I recommend using fertilityfriend.com to help determine ovulation day, I think it is pretty accurate. If you temp that will also help determine if you actually ovulated.

I'm no OPK expert but from what I remember the theory is that you ovulate the day after your first positive OPK. Have a look at this site to read a little more: https://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/Ovulation-Prediction-Kits--OPKs--.html

 

[JWC13]

I guess what I just don't understand is whether you have a surge in LH during actual ovulation. I get that the general rule is ovulation occurs one day after surge but what if you surge for 2 days? Are you ovulating during that second day or will ovulation occur after the surge?

 

[MindUtopia]

It's likely to be a little bit different for everyone. But I would always get two days of positive opks and I would ovulate on the second day of the positive opk. I know this because I did temp initially to work out what was normal for me. Usually it's 12-36 hours after the first positive (that's the surge, when LH initially rises, even if it stays up for another day or so), so for most people that is on the second day or early the day after that. I also found that corresponded to when I had the strongest ovulation pains and they would stop immediately after. What is normal for you could be different though. I would definitely BD at least both days you have a positive opk and ideally the day before as well if you can predict it. But based just on what you said above, I would assume you might have ovulated on Thursday, depending on how you felt on Thursday (CM, ovulation pains, other signs of ovulation, etc.).

 

[JWC13]

Thanks MindUtopia! This was only my second cycle TTC and I honestly haven't noticed a single ovulation symptom either time. I do get EWCM starting 3 days prior to my first positive OPK, but that's it.

If we still don't have a BFP in a couple of cycles I'm going to start temping just to have a better understanding of my body. We try to BD as frequently as we can around the fertile window so I'm not worried about missing my window, I just more or less was curious to know exactly when ovulation occured in relation to the LH surge.

 

[pinklemon]

Thanks MindUtopia! This was only my second cycle TTC and I honestly haven't noticed a single ovulation symptom either time. I do get EWCM starting 3 days prior to my first positive OPK, but that's it.

If we still don't have a BFP in a couple of cycles I'm going to start temping just to have a better understanding of my body. We try to BD as frequently as we can around the fertile window so I'm not worried about missing my window, I just more or less was curious to know exactly when ovulation occured in relation to the LH surge.

I am in the same boat with you. I have been TTC since Feb and have only been using the Ovia App and the OPK test strips from amazon. I have been frustrated because the app would predict ovulation near day 14- and my test strips would usually show early around day 11. Once I would enter the positive tests into the App, it would adjust and say my ovulation window was behind me. Not very helpful and very frustrating. This cycle I started testing with the strips the day my AF was tapering out and we have been BD every other day since I saw the pink lines start to get darker and back to back on peak days.

I also have two days of positive tests and had the same question... when the heck is the egg really there? Ugh! My CM hasn't been the most reliable either. So I gave in and got the Fertility Friend App, a basal body thermometer, and started tempting this morning. If we don't get a BFP this month at least I will have started the temps this cycle to some what establish a routine.

 

[JWC13]

pinklemon- yeah it's super annoying not knowing exactly when you ovulate. At least with BDing every other day you definitely can't miss your window. I'm curious to see how you like temping and if you feel it's worth it alongside of OPKs. My only concern with temping is that I don't wake up at the same time every day and I also wake up multiple times a night to pee so I'm not sure how that would affect the accuracy of the temps.