Opk question

[RachelLynda]

I take opk from about cycle day 12 and take them until about 3 days after I ovulate.(I only test in the mornings)
Last month I got a somewhat positive opk and then they got lighter and then 14 days later AF turned up.
This month I got the somewhat positive again and decided to count that as my ovulation date. I carried on taking them for the 3 days with them getting lighter and today was the 3rd/4th day. (automatically took one out of habit) and its got darker again.
Does that mean I didn't ovulate when I thought I did or can they get randomly darker?
I'm new to opk so not sure of everything.

 

[LoraLoo]

They can randomly get darker. Id recomment getting some more sensitive opks if you are not getting full positives. I will say that mornings are nit the best time to take opks and this may be why you are missing your surge. Try to test mid afternoon. Good luck

 

[RachelLynda]

Oh that's good to know thank you! That's why I take the almost positive as my positive as I only test in the morning and they seem to get lighter afterwards haha.
Are they like pregnancy tests where the less diluted your wee is the darker they are or does it not matter for opk?

 

[Wishing_]

OPK are different. Fmu doesn’t work for it like the it works for pregnancy tests. They also say to test ever 12 hours. The only time you get a positive is if the result line is as dark or darker than the control line.

 

[GodsNotDead23]

When I used OPK's I tested with SMU. Usually about 10/11AM. Then I'd test right before bed. About 9/11PM.

Once they started getting dark, I would test every 6 hours, including FMU. BUT never use just FMU. It can give false positive or negatives depending how your body works.

Also its possible to have more than one surge. Wait until you get AF, if its 14 days after the first "positive" that was when you O'd. If its after the second, that is when you O'd.

 

[RachelLynda]

Ah thanks ladies! Was totally misinformed by someone 🙄
Last Month AF started 14 days after my almost positive so this month I'm going to take my almost positive as an indication of AFs arrival and then next month I'll know what to do this is only the second month doing it and we're being pretty relaxed about TTC for a few months

 

[Wishing_]

I say start testing once af is over to help pin point when you O. I did it for two months and now I know I mostly O on CD17. Sometimes a cd16

 

[lilnessi]

something similar happened to me, i had a chemical last month so not really sure when CD1 was so i estimated it based on when i first started bleeding. On CD 10 (6/18) i took an OPK at night and it was almost darker then the control so i thought that i had missed my surge the night before and counted that as my positive and assumed id be ovulating the next day. I continued to take OPKs (morning and night) since then just to be sure and the coloring of the test line varied but was lighter than the one on CD 10 until yesterday morning got a definite positive OPK as well as this morning. So i think that i am now about to ovulate and that the earlier one was just a randomly darker line.
If your last line was darker than the control id take that as you being about to ovluate and I would definitely suggest that as you get closer to when you think you are about to ovulate to start taking them 2-3 times a day so that you dont miss your surge!