OPK Question

[blinkyfbnbg]

Hello,

I have a question about OPKs. I had what I thought was a positive OPK fairly early in my cycle (CD9). My temp spiked the next day, so I assumed I ovulated. The next day the test was negative. My temp spike only lasted one day. I didn't test for a few days, assuming I already ovulated. On about CD 14, I tested again just out of curiosity, and the test was positive. It has been positive every morning since then (I'm now on CD 19). At first, it was only positive in the morning but not in the afternoon. (The test I'm using says to use first morning urine.) The past few days it's been positive in both the morning and afternoon. My temp has been gradually going up over the past few days. I'm guessing this isn't normal?? Since going off the pill in December I've had 25 day cycles. Any thoughts about what's going on?

Thanks!

 

[lomelindi17]

Hi! So first just to cover all the bases, for an opk to be positive the test line has to be darker than the control line or just as dark. Mine never get darker than the control but I can see a pattern of the line gradually getting darker if I test over a few days, until they are equally dark. Usually you ovulate either on the day of or the day after a +opk. Some women can get several days of +opks around ovulation. Sometimes you get a +opk and your body tries to ovulate but fails, so it will try again a few days later, giving you another set of +opks. That's why you need to get 3 high temps to confirm ovulation, since a single temp could be a fluke. You need a few days of temps to show a trend, since opks alone aren't reliable enough evidence.

Also, opks can pick up both the luteinizing hormone (ovulation) and hcg (pregnancy hormone) but they are not usually as sensitive as a pregnancy test. Assuming you did ovulate on cd9, it is slightly possible you could be picking up hcg with the opk but I doubt it could pick it up as early as 5dpo (cd14). It's more possible now at 10 dpo but still quite a stretch. It's also possible you got a bad batch of opks.

I would get some pregnancy tests and start testing at 12 dpo every other day until you get a bfp or af. Or wait it out until 18 dpo like we're supposed to but I never can stand that much suspense lol! Or if you know your usual luteal phase length, you could just test on the day after af is supposed to come.

Hope that helps, best of luck with whatever happens!!