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

[Throwaway_panther]

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?

[cosmosis]

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

[atomic sagebrush]

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.

[cosmosis]

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.

OPK-CD7-PM.jpg

[atomic sagebrush]

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.

[cosmosis]

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?

[atomic sagebrush]

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

[cosmosis]

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?

OPK-CD11-12.jpg
OPK-CD12-AM-PM.jpg

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.

[Burakoam]

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!

[atomic sagebrush]

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.