Do OPK lines HAVE to be dark? When is it actually positive?

As per Atomic's suggestion, I will be using OPK's from early on so that I don't miss my window, however, I'm slightly confused with what exactly I'm looking for.

I see posts with ladies talking about their OPK's gradually becoming positive, as in, they get light lines and they continue to get darker. So when is it actually positive? I would assume that as soon as I see two lines, it is a positive and plans should be executed accordingly. Am I right or wrong here?

All input is appreciates! TIA! :)

It depends on what kind you are using, but the cheapie internet ones will show a second line just about every day of your cycle. They get darker and darker as you get closer to your LH surge. When the second test line is "as dark" as the control line, then it is a positive. When you get a true positive, you will understand that the lines truly do become the same darkness. When in doubt, post a pic and ladies here will help.

I'll be using dollar store cheapies since I'll be doing two per day. This past cycle I definitely didn't see a gradual darkening of the line. One morning it was just dark and the 3 days after it slowly faded. I wish I had started using them sooner to practice lol.

I would order some online if I were you. You will go broke buying them at the store, even dollar store. They are about 0.20 a piece online and I needed that cheapened so I didn't feel bad testing so much. Also know, that most OPKs need afternoon urine. Morning urine will give a false positive- unless you are using the expensive OPKs that specifically say to use morning urine. Read the instructions. If it doesn't say use first morning urine, test in afternoon.

OPKs with lines aren't positive until the result line is as dark as or darker than the control line. For most people, they will fade in and then fade out.

This makes me very nervous! What if the OPK just doesn't get very dark and I miss my window? lol

I probably wouldn't do a pink cycle completely dependent on OPKs if you've never used them before.

Are you a blue swayer? What is the frequency you have planned?

Yes, I'm swaying blue. I plan to BD every other day when AF is done and 3 attempts at +OPK.

Some people get a fade in, others go right to positive. (and this can vary by individual, by month, meaning you can "always" have one pattern and then suddenly go to the other and in any possible variation)

What you're looking for is lines that are equally dark, or the test is darker than control.

IF you don't get that, what you can do instead, is if the test is quite dark but not quite positive, go ahead and hit it with the 3 attempts and then go back to eod. It's ok to have part of the 3 attempts in slightly before surge, and/or it's fine to go up to 5 or even more provided you're in the fertile window anyway, so if you BD at dark-but-not-pos and then get a positive the next day, you can still have more attempts, and that first attempt will BE in the fertile window because you are fertile just before you get a positive OPK as well. (I hope that makes sense)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nusaybah

Yes, I'm swaying blue. I plan to BD every other day when AF is done and 3 attempts at +OPK.

---

Just go ahead and feel free to have an attempt if you see that line dark, but not quite there yet. Either scenario works:

1)This IS the positive and it isn't going to get any darker, thus have 3 attempts

or

2)You'll get a true pos tomorrow and so you can have 3 attempts counting this as one OR you can have 4 attempts total or even more because the fertile window is open!!

I think the every other day sex is supposed to help with issues like this -- but yeah, with the cheap ones, you'll almost always get a second line.

I just tested for the first time last month following a miscarriage, because I wanted to see if I'd be ovulating (which I ended up doing CD25, with a very short LP after for a full 31 day cycle). I tested every day after I stopped bleeding since I had a ton of them cheap off Amazon and had never actually tested before.

I ended up having 3 days of solid, two dark lines for the period of ovulation -- and you will definitely know the difference between that and a negative. I don't know if this happens for others, but I also noticed that my positive ovulation line came up very quickly versus the 5 minute wait for results on a negative.

I know some women have a very short phase of ovulation -- around your suspected ovulation, you may want to test more than once during the day to see if you can catch it to be sure?

Thank you Atomic and Panther! Yep, I plan to test twice per day. If I do it this way, should I do morning and evening (every 12 hours) or noon and evening?

I'll be posting pics on this thread when the time comes for some input :D

please check the directions on your OPK because most of them are best used afternoon/evening (not morning) A few kinds are calibrated for morning use tho so I can't totally say from here.

The test instructs to take it between 10AM and 8PM. I started testing this evening and to my surprise, I have a faint line. I understand that this is a negative and what I'm looking for is the color to be the same as the control, correct? I feel uneasy lol, last cycle, they were stark white up until 2 days before I got a clear positive. So, I don't know what this could mean besides that I'm gearing up early this cycle.

Attachment 34132

Yes, that's a negative test and believe it or not if your partner peed on them, he could get lines like that sometimes!! Your body uses that hormone in smaller amounts to do other jobs and so sometimes enough will come out to register on the test. But it has to be a certain concentration to trigger O.

Thank you, Atomic :)

The lines are now gone and my tests are stark white. This is the time I started testing last cycle, so its interesting.

I do have a question. What happens if I get a positive on our off/no BD day? I'm on CD 11(6 days after AF) and we've BD'd 3 times so far and today will be 4. If I O on CD15 as I did last month, I will possibly get a positive OPK on CD14 which is our off day. Last cycle I got my positive OPK on the day of Ovulation, not the day before. My temp dropped that day as well so it was confirmed with both methods. I don't seem to get a huge heads up, even with temps and symptoms. *sigh* lol.

Also, is it safe to continue to BD daily from positive OPK onwards(after the 3 attempts) or are we supposed to continue every other day until after O?

Then you have sex that night just like normal and do the three attempts. No difference just do what you'd do normally

I would actually have you keep with the EOD in case of delayed O. Let's say you actually don't O for another week, and so have been DTD 7 days straight and by the time the egg shows up, he's depleted again. We just can't know for sure if you Oed, and thus it's too risky IMO

Sounds like a great plan, Atomic! :) will follow EOD after the 3 attempts.

Earlier in this post (or a different post? lol) you mentioned you liked ladies to start OPK's a bit early so they can see the progress. Is this what you mean?

Attachment 34193
Attachment 34194

The previous sticks have evap lines, but the first 5 mins they were all totally white. The one from tonight got the line within a minute or two. I know it isn't positive yet because when it is, it gets dark almost instantly. However, I'm assuming that what I have now is equivalent to a flashing happy face on the fancier tests right?

FF says my fertile window starts tomorrow(4 days), which is just in time. :D

The flashing fancy tests measure estrogen and LH. It's the estrogen that causes the flashing smiley and the LH surge that causes the solid so no it is not the same. The smiley Test only go solid when it reaches the specific concentration needed to O.. as atomic memtioned..anytime before that you can pull the stick out and see lines like what you have on those, but they aren't positive unless the solid smiley is there. Another thing to keep in mind wether it's the line tests or smiley tests you can get a full on positive result and still not ovulate. As an example this BFP cycle I had a solid smiley in June, but never had a period and just kept going until I got another positive in July.. THEN I didn't even ovulate with that solid either... I got a second solid smiley a week later in July and that's when I ovulated and got pregnant.

I know the tests say test in AM but I feel especially for blue sways you want to test at night when your LH concentration is at its highest and that's more of your 'go to' LH result... Atomic will weigh in on that I am sure. My reasoning is this: with DD3 I had a negative in the morning and went to RE because I was late to ovulate at that point.. ultrasound showed a fat egg ready to go so he told me to test again that night it would be any day now and sure enough that night I had a solid smiley! Sonby the next morning I would have missed 12 hrs of ovulation window to DTD for blue sway if I had paid more attention to my AM result. Same thing with DD4 btw.. negative ovu kit in the morning and negative at 6 PM but then positive at midnight!

cosmo - those are all pretty faint. Some people get a nice progression of color from fainter to dark positive over the course of a few days. Not everyone gets this (and it can vary by the month as well) but it can be handy to plan for the 3-5 BD in the fertile window. I would not be surprised if you do see a progression over the next few days.

Please everyone follow the instructions that came with your tests. If you want to add in an additional test that's up to you but don't skip the morning one in favor of an evening/afternoon one if your test's directions say to test in the morning.

Thank you, Burakoam and Atomic.

One of the big issues with us is that we don't stay up late. I'm in bed by 8:00PM and I wake up at 4:00AM, so I can't test so late and by the time 10/11AM comes along, my pee is diluted and as per the test instructions, I've waited until that time to test(10/11AM). I"ve tested twice per day and up to 4 times per day lol. You know, the reason I started this thread is because I had a MASSIVE hunch that my surge would happen during the night based on what happened last cycle where I got a positive late in the evening and a negative the following morning.

I feel very deflated because went against my intuition of making sure we BD on the AM and PM of CD 13 and 14. It looks like I did wind up getting my surge overnight and I skipped BD the morning of the positive test on CD14. It just wasn't dark enough to consider positive, but once it dried, I realized it is the darkest one of all my OPK's. By the time I realized this though, we had already skipped BD in the morning, so we ended up having an attempt at night just in case. I'm so glad we did! Here are my tests from CD12 (PM) to This morning, CD15 (AM). I took the test at 8:00AM on CD14 and again at 11AM, look at the difference. I should have been taking them earlier all along since I get up so early. Live and learn.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2dsr5zn.jpg

Ovulation is a funny thing isn't it? lol. Yesterday I was VERY irritable (not great when you have to BD!), fatigued and had very painful O pain, but no real EWCM. Today, my BBT spiked very high, I have some EWCM, no real positive OPK and very mild O pain. So who the heck knows. I didn't think getting 3 attempts in was going to be so stressful. It's mainly the OPK issue. Now I don't know if my attempts sway boy or girl, but I did my best, or should I say we.

Here's my chart so you ladies can have a look. It is what it is, there's no looking back now. I marked both CD13 and CD14 as +OPK based on the image above.

http://i63.tinypic.com/eqqsn5.jpg


*Let me stress that even if your partner loves to BD, there's something about being on demand that makes them less cooperative, or all these things just HAPPEN to get in the way (especially if you have kids). It also made ME less cooperative. haha.

I must add some advice for those reading; LISTEN to Atomic when she tells you how to BD :D . Everything she warned about happened to us, so glad I followed through or I may be crying right now lol. BD every other day is much better than every day. At least I know I'm covered because We BD'd on CD11 and CD13 so the swimmers had plenty of time to capacitate. If I O'd yesterday or today, they will catch the egg (hopefully!). We'll get in one more attempt tonight and another tomorrow morning, then we take a break and EOD thereafter. We used preseed at every BD session, btw.

That's my OPK drama. Hope it helps somebody! :D

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...f04dba696f.jpg

Like this? Yikes. This is early for my usual cycles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does look like you surged later the night of the 13th (when you couldn't test) but that's great imo.. puts you right on track for CD14-16 for ovulation if everything went as planned!

I stress that I never said not to test in the morning but to be careful because you can get a positive at night as well as in the morning and your actual surge would have began the night before. Clarification for anyone else who reads this thread :)

With that nice temp jump I think you ovulated nice and fast in the window too. Gl this 2WW!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wantanother2017

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...f04dba696f.jpg

Like this? Yikes. This is early for my usual cycles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

That's a nice gradient! Very clear to me :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Burakoam

Does look like you surged later the night of the 13th (when you couldn't test) but that's great imo.. puts you right on track for CD14-16 for ovulation if everything went as planned!

I stress that I never said not to test in the morning but to be careful because you can get a positive at night as well as in the morning and your actual surge would have began the night before. Clarification for anyone else who reads this thread :)

With that nice temp jump I think you ovulated nice and fast in the window too. Gl this 2WW!

---

Thank you! :) The test instructions say between 10:00AM and 8:00PM, so that's what I did. I kept wondering if I should change it due to my early wake time, 4AM would still technically be night time no? LOL. I feel lost

My temp dropped right back down today and now I'm utterly confused.It could be a fallback rise, but that's never happened, so I'm not sure why this time would be my first but hey :owl: OPK still negative. All other O symptoms are gone, except cervix being high. Should we skip BD today and just resume EOD tomorrow? Decisions Decisions.

Re when to test, between 10 and 8 is just fine and dandy. Don't worry about when you wake up. I'ts more primordial than that and has to do with day length. It peaks in your body sometime during the night and then gradually makes its way out in the urine starting lunch thru early evening. Between 10 and 8 whenever it is convenient.

Yes it's really next to impossible to tell it to the day except in retrospect. If you think you've Oed, I'd go to every other day. If you're still not sure, then hit it tonight.

Umm , I really don't know about this , as I used opks one cycle before !
And it's darken gradually leading up to a dark line ,
I will use it in my next cycle and I hope it will work fine[emoji26]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good Morning!

My temp went up today :bluecheer: We made one last attempt last night and I'm ready for a break! lol.

http://i64.tinypic.com/300bq88.jpg

So I personally feel I O'd for sure, and I'm pretty certain it was CD14, which makes me 3DPO today with a fallback rise. We'll know for sure tomorrow, God willing.

Atomic, would you still consider my attempts to be boy territory?

As far as the tests, OPK's are now negative and none have reached the darkness my other two did on late CD13 and early CD14.

I'm going to wait for crosshairs if that's ok with you

Houston, we have [solid!] crosshairs.

http://i63.tinypic.com/300shl0.jpg

My temps are oddly low for this time in my cycle though, I'm a skeptical because yesterday I had a temping issue.

The night of CD17 I made it to bed at my usual 8:00PM and was asleep by 9. I woke up at 12:30AM the morning of CD18 to toilet (this has been happening since CD14, its a huge pain) and apparently had no pants on and light blanket over me, which isn't my usual. It's winter and I'm up north, the house was very cold (60-65F). I took my temp because I wasn't aware of the time at that moment and my temp was 96.78F! I went back to bed, put pants on and big blanket on (as other nights), had a couple of wakings between then and wake time(this is normal for me), but I didn't get up. I took temp for the second time at 5:00AM and got 97.82F

My usual wake time is between 4:00AM and 5:00AM sometimes even 3:30AM and I always just temp at the time I wake up for the day and only once. Some nights are restless, some are not and it hasn't really affected my patterns in the last few months I've been temping. So I went ahead and used the second temp because it is my norm and so whatever lol. I'm annoyed. I should have just taken my temp once.

My cover line for last cycle was 97.29, this cycle is 97.30 and I have never dropped so close to the cover line unless AF is around the corner so I don't know what to think, except just keep temping lol. All fertile signs are gone. I was just left with light AF cramps that come and go since CD15 and very painful boobs today.

Sooooo, now what? Stick to EOD until further notice?

I would just in case. Not entirely sure with your temps that this was an ovulatory cycle for you.. could still happen so be on the look out.. are your OPKs stark white?

I would say DTD every other day just in case


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Burakoam

I would just in case. Not entirely sure with your temps that this was an ovulatory cycle for you.. could still happen so be on the look out.. are your OPKs stark white?

---

Yep, unless I leave them for like 12+ hours lol, then I see lines, but by then they are discarded. I didn't test yesterday though, got tired of so much peeing in a cup. LOL. I'll need more data to confirm O I guess. If I wasn't doing OPK's I would be pretty certain I O'd.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by business.woman

I would say DTD every other day just in case


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

yep. that's the plan for the time being.

Whats really crazy Cos is the cycle before i conceived this baby i had a positive OPK AND o signs and still didnt ovulate..had no period at the end of that cylce and just kept going into the next. So yes even if your OPK had been positive it still wouldnt be 100% confirmation...all it really says is your body WANTS to ovulate..in your case with your temps thats pretty telling that i think your body started to gear up for it but didnt hit the mark...but you may still yet this cycle. If not be on the look out for your typical O signs and test then..or test around same days next month when your body would be getting ready to ovulate again...I skipped a cycle then got pregnant the next one so nothing to worry about yet and it can still all work in your favor :)

Thank you for your input Burakoam! :)

fwiw, here is today's OPK. I took it 20 mins ago:

http://i65.tinypic.com/21kxbuq.jpg

That's how they were before I got the positive one cd13 & cd14.

Boy, still not liking that chart. I can't call that one as having ovulated yet.

Yes, keep BD every other day for now (or every 2 if he starts running out of steam) and then be on the lookout for EWCM or O pain to let you know when/if to do more OPK.

I got some ewcm today, but cervix dropped down and appears closed lol. I've had ongoing cramping since CD15. Of course, the month I'm actually trying, everything has to go wonky.

I'll test again tonight!

Cycle i got pregnant i EWCM right before the first positive opk but it was very little and died out fast...within a week it came back and the second day of it i had such huge amounts of EWCM which i had never had before (yay blue diet) that i just HAD to test..so it was 2 days into new EWCM that my test went stark positive.. test tonight but dont be surprised if the positive is tomorrow morning or night! curious wether the line will be any darker tonight :)

I agree with burakoam - keep testing. I've had positive opks and then didn't O until about 8 dad later when my.body geared up again.
I don't think you've ovulated based on your charts yet.

Try switching your FF over to FAM. That's more reliable using temps I found with when you actually ovulate. One cycle where I got a positive opk and put the data in (it automatically made crosshairs under the advanced method). However when I actually O'ed 8 days layer and there was a visible temp rise that then stayed up, it didn't move it still. But then I switched to FAM setting and it moved to correspond with the temps.