Opk confusion

[Abifasc]

Hi Atomic, I’m wondering your opinion on OPKs and when they would show ovulation? I’m reading it’s 12-36 hours after first positive or first peak, which is confusing. I feel like ovulation should be today, day 14. BD was day 11 (hubby left the state for work then).



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[atomic sagebrush]

It's not confusing really, it's simply that everyone's body, in every month that passes, is different. The surge is not "ovulation will certainly be coming at this point in time". It's more of a message that your body sends to itself of "sometime in the near future might be a great time to ovulate" and then your body does that on its own timeline. 24-36 hours is the norm; while some sources say 8-12 hours I find that is more often in people who are not consistently using OPK. Far, far more people will ovulate more like 48 to even 72 hours after that first pos than will O 8-12 hours after.

I cannot look at anyone's OPK and tell when they ovulated. The OPK are good for what they are but they're really not telling us specifically when ovulation will or did happen.

Ovulation could have been CD 13 or 14 (or even possibly not happened till later.) We just can't tell from the OPK because you can have a dark positive even after ovulation or have a test that's gone negative before O even occurs. The surge is just a signal your body sends to itself to ovulate sometime soon.

[Abifasc]

It's not confusing really, it's simply that everyone's body, in every month that passes, is different. The surge is not "ovulation will certainly be coming at this point in time". It's more of a message that your body sends to itself of "sometime in the near future might be a great time to ovulate" and then your body does that on its own timeline. 24-36 hours is the norm; while some sources say 8-12 hours I find that is more often in people who are not consistently using OPK. Far, far more people will ovulate more like 48 to even 72 hours after that first pos than will O 8-12 hours after.

I cannot look at anyone's OPK and tell when they ovulated. The OPK are good for what they are but they're really not telling us specifically when ovulation will or did happen.

Ovulation could have been CD 13 or 14 (or even possibly not happened till later.) We just can't tell from the OPK because you can have a dark positive even after ovulation or have a test that's gone negative before O even occurs. The surge is just a signal your body sends to itself to ovulate sometime soon.

Thank you! It seems like every site I read says something different (like BdM says you don’t ovulate for 24-48 hours after peak), which for mean means my surge has been happening for 5 days before I ovulate. I guess I’ll just wait and see if I conceive. Based on cramping I feel like ovulation is today because I’m not cramping and had severe cramping the past 2 days . Who knows.


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[atomic sagebrush]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "my surge has been going on for 5 days before ovulation", can you explain?

36 hours is considered "average" but keep in mind that we are dealing with user error and crap tests and all sorts of variables (like false positives and false negatives and delayed ovualtion too) and that's why we're all so annoyingly vague and inconsistent, lol.

[Abifasc]

It’s just confusing for me because I got a positive opk 2 days ago and it’s still rising and getting much darker. I’m not sure if the LH surge means I will ovulate 12-48 hour after first positive or “peak” positive.



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[atomic sagebrush]

The rule is first POSITIVE even if you get darker ones later on. Your confusion is coming from the "peak" on digi OPK but the peak on digi OPK does not equate to the darkest test of the cheap strips. There is no peak on the cheap strips.

Think of the positive OPK like a message your body is sending to itself. It can "hear" the message when it's being whispered even if later on it starts yelling, if that makes sense. But the catch is that the number of hours is far less specific than you're thinking of it. While MOST people will O the average amount of time after, that is simply that - an average. It's possible to be on the longer end of that, and it's also possible for your body to have a false positive on the OPK either because your body was gearing up to ovulate and it took a little longer, or for the tests to be a bit dodgy and be registering lower levels of hormones than they "should". It is also possible for the hormone to take a while to clear and stay positive even after ovulation has occurred.

OPK - they're lousy technology but they're all we have.

[Abifasc]

Thank you! I guess I was just hoping that I could still get pregnant even with my husband going out of town earlier than I wanted. We bd’d cd11 so I think I’m probably out now that it’s 4 days later. Oh well, on to next month! I’ve been keeping up stamina with this diet and exercise but it can be tiring!


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[atomic sagebrush]

I think it's just as possible you ovulated CD 13 or 14 and are in with a chance though. FXFXFX!!

[Abifasc]

I think it's just as possible you ovulated CD 13 or 14 and are in with a chance though. FXFXFX!!

Thank you! I hope so


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