ovulation test confusion from last month. Anyone understand them?

I think I've accurately worked out my cycle after coming off the mirena a couple months ago, but as yet I suppose it's still early days, so how would I go about timing sex around ovulation? I have what has been 27 day cycles, normally I used to have 28 day cycles. I seem to be ovulating (according to tests and cm) around/on cycle day 15, which is 12 days before my next period/cycle begins, which is also my luteal phase.

 I have the dip test sticks to track ovulation, I test twice a day to be sure I don't miss a surge, about a week before ovulation and a few days after I feel the day may have lapsed just to be sure. I test roughly at 10.30am and 6.30pm each day but not relgiously at these times. One thing that concerned me was that I was testing for ages last month (a week before) and no line appeared for ages which obviously meant no surge, then a faint line a appeared a couple days before ovulation, although I know this is still a neg result. I then tested on my 15th cycle day, which is 12 days before my next period , and it was positive, this was about 6.30pm, (I tested 10.30am the same day and it was neg), but then the next day at 10.30am the opk test was neg again. does this mean I had already ovulated after 10.30am that day but before 10.30am the next day? Because if I hadn't, wouldn't it have still detected a surge the next 'am if ovulation hadn't yet occured.

 try asking this very same question on the forum on netmums, I don't have the answer but I am sure that there will be loads of people on there that do xxxx

Thanks Boobaloo, I have posted it on there. I will wait to see.

xx

Hey there,

    Hope i can help. Forstly, you don't need to do 2 tests a day, only 1 between 2pm and 6pm doing one at 10:30 will almost always show a neg result.

From what you said, you ovulated on cycle day 15, you get the surge of LH for roughly 12 hours whilst the egg is "preparing", and being released but after that the egg continues to travel down the fallopian tubes without the need for the LH hormone. If trying to conceive, it would be best to have sex every other day from cycle day 10-20 but making sure to have sex on the day you ovulate.

Oh and what I do aswell, is use the little internet cheapy tests, then when I am sure it is positive I do a clearblue digital ovulation test to confirm (you get a blank circle for no ovulation and a smiley face for ovulation)

Hope that helps

You could do what I did

This is going to sound crazy - basically because my problem wasn't getting pregnant, but staying pregnant, but all the same, we did this.

I can't recall exactly where I got the number from (think it was someone on babyworld) and basically, it's the Clearblue "testing team" and what you do is you tell them that you've been trying to conceive unsuccessfully for 6 months (min) and that you've been keeping a diary and ask if you can test their ovulation devices.

They in turn send you a box. 

the box contains

a clear blue ovulation monitor

clear blue ovulation sticks

a plastic jug

a colour in the dot A4 paper diary type thing (that you complete corresponding to the result on the monitor)

some clear blue pregnancy tests

some supplementary information

They send out a three month supply

What you do

First, you have to calibrate the ovulation monitor.  Do this exactly as the information tells you to.  Do not be tempted to turn on the monitor to make sure the batteries work when you're mid-cycle before you're going to start testing - cos you'll fuck up the equipment.  It has to be done exactly to test criteria.  As I recall you turn on the monitor the day AFTER your period starts and calibrate it.

Basically - you wake up every morning, you wee in the jug, you dip the ovulation test stick in the jug for a set amount of seconds then you put the stick into the monitor for it to "read" the result.  This part takes a  few  minutes (so brush your teeth, take a shower - whatever).

Once the results are available on the monitor, record it exactly onto the sheet provided.

Do this every day.

The monitor isn't always perfect on the first month because it is "learning" about you, but from month 2 onwards - it's perfect.  The monitor will have little symbols on it which tell you exactly when is productive and non-productive times of your cycle.

When you get pregnant, You send your box with all your stuff in it back to Unipath and they will contact you about 9 months later to ask how the pregnancy went, to establish the exactly length of your pregnancy and some general questions for resource purposes (i,e, did you have pre-eclampsia, was it a caesarrian birth - that kind of thing as they do research for other pregancy/birth type things to help fund their researching).

I used it with the pregnancy I had after my daughter (that ended in miscarriage) and again with the pregnancy where I had my son (I conceived on my first attempt, my period was the date that Madeleine McCann was abducted, I'll always remember that very well because I remember going to bed feeling shit when I started bleeding and watching the news breaking about her being missing.) .....

Anyway - Unipath's number is 01234 835000 (you'll have to ask for Clearblue ovulation testing).  If nothing else, it'll save you over £100 in buying the equipment that you'll only ever use for a very short time.

Good luck

And one last thing

I have an app on my smart phone called "my days" where you input the first day of your period and for the first cycle it's hit and miss, but the next cycle onwards, it shows you when your period is due, when you're likely to be ovulating etc ....

I use that - and find it spookily accurate.