Ovulation tests??? Understanding your cycle advice

[becky85]

Well hello there ladies. First time back on this forum since my little girl was born last year. Thinking about baby number two and not really sure what to do (apart from the obvious). I have never had regular periods and before getting pregnant last time took medication to induce periods every 3 months or so if I hadn't had one naturally. We got pregnant by complete chance last time - it was a bit of a surprise and I think we just got lucky. But now I'm thinking about trying to plan and I don't really know where to start. What is the difference between the cheap ovulation kits you can get and the really expensive ones? I never have a clue what day of my cycle I'm on and wouldn't know how to find out? Also I assume that if I have really irregular periods then I would only ovulate once during that time so I could spend a fortune if it's only every 3 months. Any advice on how to get a bit more clued up with such things much appreciated

 

[kumber]

Are you periods once every 3 months? The ic (Internet cheapie) opks are fairly good value for money. I got a pack of 30 off Amazon for £6 or so.

 

[Keelygracey]

Yep, I got 30 from eBay for £3-£4, some people say the cheapie ones are rubbish but they've worked fine for me

 

[phonixgirl]

It sounds like you might have pcos if your periods are that irregular and you have taken medication to bring on a period.

One of the best things you can do is get the free Fertility Friend to record your periods, cervical mucus and anything else.

OPKs are good but they don't always work for pcos ladies (they do with me though). I recommend that you try maca root tablets to balance your hormones, chromium and cinnamon (for PCOS and metabolism).

Also buy a basal thermometer from Amazon or eBay - it needs to be to 2 decimal places. Mine cost £5.99 from Babymad on Amazon. It's easy to do, just record your temp when you wake each morning (ideally at the same time). You can input your temps onto the Fertility Friend app and it will automatically detect ovulation. (I know your baby might wake you up in the night but hopefully it won't affect the temps too much!)

These are good starting points. I could give you a lot more too but I'll leave it at that for now It's got my cycles to 28 days which were craaaazzzyyy before.

Good luck xx

 

[Valentina92]

I used internet cheapies (dipsticks) as OPK's and worked fine for me. Tested day 1 to see what my negative looked like, then tested once a day 4 days before my average ovulation date and when I saw a shift in results started testing twice a day and I found my positive.
They say after getting positive dont test anymore, but I'd advise to do so just to check you're LH levels decrease and you know its over.
I had a slight lighter result after what I thought was my positive, tested again and then got an even darker actual positive
Good luck x