If you had an endless supply of OPKs...

[craftyT]

would you still chart?

Last month I tried to do both - and found that the OPKs were so easy but expensive. Unfortunately when the line showed up nice and dark, I was out of town on business :(

Charting on the other hand was, IMO, a total pain - I would forget to temp, forget to write it down, etc. At the end of the cycle, I had about 10 days of information. :o For the charters out there - how do you keep up with this?

I'm wondering what the pros / cons are to these 2 methods?

Personally, if the OPK fairy came to my house and gave me an endless supply, I would just use those. ;)

[lowcountrywed]

This is my first cycle charting (and I'm only CD6), and I tried OPKs my last 2 cycles and will probably continue them as a supplement to charting. OPKs won't tell you if you definitely o'ed and sometimes (like my last cycle) you might not get a positive (even if you did O).

[junkinmytrunk]

I've always used both. FWIW, I use the OPK's to predict O, and the charting helps in determining IF/WHEN I O'ed or not. Mucus is also really important -- the guys can't live without it!

Good luck to you~

[tenofcups]

I also use both. I've been using charting to let me know when I think I should use the OPK and then the OPK as a kind of confirmation that I'm on target. I haven't been doing temps, just cervical fluid, but I will probably get back to temping now that we're really serious about TTC. I actually find charting to be less of a pain that the OPK--I can more easily stick a thermometer in my mouth when I wake or check out CF during the day than deal with peeing on a stick first thing in the morning :rolleyes:

[Nigellas]

OPK only perdict the LH surge, not if you've actually ovulated.

[sandt8704]

I didn't have the patience to chart, but luckily for DH and I, we got PG the first month with OPK's. I didn't get my surge until CD26.

[QT Pie]

I have a stupid question - does the LH surge always predict ovulation? I've been using the OPKs for awhile and have no problem detecting the surge, but still have not conceived yet. Just curious to see if anyone has had this problem.

[craftyT]

(big sigh) - I still have so much to learn about how to make babies! :o It never crossed my mind how intricate the process is until I was infected with this baby bug! ;)

I have followup questions:

I'm a bit confused... an LH surge doesn't = ovulation? Can you only tell if you've ovulated based on your temperature?

[JamBray]

I use a fertility monitor in conjunction with temping just for that extra bit of confirmation. The way I keep up with charting is to keep the thermometer right next to my bed, so that when the alarm goes off the first thing I do is stick it in my mouth. I also keep a chart on FF as well as Ovusoft, so that I can record my temp right when I get into work (and then I'll do it at home later), or if I'm not going to be near a computer, I'll just write it down. I've just been doing it for so long, it's like second nature so I don't consider it a pain at all.
I have a stupid question - does the LH surge always predict ovulation? I've been using the OPKs for awhile and have no problem detecting the surge, but still have not conceived yet. Just curious to see if anyone has had this problem.
No, not always. I've had cycles where I'll get a peak reading on my monitor, but my temp doesn't rise for another 2-3 days. That's what I like about charting...for the most part you always know what your body is doing and there's no "Well the line looks dark, but I don't know" or "My monitor said peak, so I must've O'd right?" It just (again, for the most part) takes out the guessing.

If it's not TMI, how often are you BD'ing before you see a surge? How long have you been TTC? Have you or your DH been tested for any kinds of problems?

[bunny nose]

I bought my OPK's from saveontests.com They are pretty cheap and they worked just as well as the one's you would buy in a store.

HTH
Karen

[Nigellas]

I'm a bit confused... an LH surge doesn't = ovulation? Can you only tell if you've ovulated based on your temperature?[/COLOR]

Right. Your body could get all worked up to ovulate but then not actually release an egg. High tech medical gizmos aside, I think temping is the only real way to tell if you've really ovulated.

[albuquerque]

I charted for months and I believe in it as a method--it teaches you amazing things about your body and it does confirm whether or not you actually O'd, which OPK's don't do, they only track the level of hormones in your urine. However. I didn't get pregnant until the first month I used OPKs, and I am a BELIEVER. The thing about charting is that you only know for sure about ovulation after the fact, but OPKs give you a heads up in advance. When I was charting only, I would invariably get the timing slightly wrong. With OPKs, you can see the surge coming, and start the BD fest in advance, giving you the best chances for pregnancy.

I didn't find charting to be a problem--to do it consistently, I set my alarm at what is to me the ungodly early hour of 6, before I ever have to be out of bed, stick the thermometer in my mouth, temp, then go back to sleep. That way I didn't miss weekends or get inconsistent readings, and if you do it every day, you just get used to it and it's no more hassle than, say, brushing your teeth.

I found the OPKs to be a bigger hassle--and a bigger expense. To use them correctly, you don't pee on a stick in the morning, as one poster said, you do it in the afternoon (the LH surge in most women occurs in the mid-morning, and if you take your readings early in the morning, you'll likely miss the day of the surge, and it may have subsided by the next day), after waiting about 4 hours without peeing or drinking anything. That 4 hours was the hard part for me. I'm constantly drinking water, and therefore constantly in the bathroom. And they get expensive, particularly if you tend to ovulate late, like I do, and a bit inconsistently, like I do. I was seriously considering getting the CB fertility monitor ($200 seems a lot, but then, I would have happily paid $200 to somebody who could magically make me pregnant, right?), but then I got pregnant on the first month with OPKs.

One more thing, about mucus--I tried for a while, when I had a bad thermometer, to go by mucus only. No luck. I learned, when I finally got a functional thermometer, that for some reason, my body produces a lot of mucus AFTER ovulation, so there is no way I would ever have gotten pregnant going by mucus alone. Also, in the month that I did get pregnant, I never got any noticeable mucus. I was trying to also chart cervical position, and I would get just the tiniest dab of mucus on my fingertip when I was checking position (internally), so I would try to figure out how to categorize that and chart it. I was really not hopeful because there was virtually no mucus at all. However, whatever tiny amount I had was apparently enough. Other months, when I had what I would describe as (TMI) globs, it did me no good and mostly threw me off in terms of timing.

[jennylou]

Some people with PCOS have a high LH, and will consistently get positive OPKs but never ovulate, so OPKs don't work for everyone.

How about charting starting the day AF leaves town (usually day 6 for most people) and continue through O (and after three days of high temps for confirmation)...then you won't have to temp the whole cycle?