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TTC Clear Blue OPK question

cheyangel19cheyangel19 Posts: 44
edited November 2014 in Trying to Conceive
Well, my NWC shipment arrived on Friday and I am now anxiously awaiting my positive OPK so I know when to do my home ICI.

The last time I had trouble with the cheap OPKs I bought, so (by suggestion on here) I purchased the Clear Blue digital ones with the smiley face on them. I still had severl of the $1 OPKs so I figured to save a little money & make the more expensive ones last a little longer I would test on those until I get a positive, then follow it with the clear blue test to try to narrow down how close to ovulation I am.

Well, I am on CD 12 today and had EWCM so I went ahead and tried the cheap test this morning. I got a positive with in seconds, so I used the same urine sample to also perform a clear blue digital test. That one was a negative (empty 'O' symbol.)

Now I am getting a little nervous, because I am on a 27 or 28 day cycle & should ovulate around CD 13 or 14. (I am not sure exactly when I ovulate.) But the directions on the digital tests state that you will get a 'O' before any indication of ovulation, followed by 2 fertile days of a blinking smiley & then your 2 peak days of fertility with a solid smiley. So does this mean I am still at least 4 days out from ovulation?

I had planned to inseminate on the first solid smiley (ICI & I only have 1 vial this round.) Do I need to be testing several times a day?

Could the clear blue one be wrong? I would guess the cheap one might be, but has anyone had any trouble with the clear blue tests before? I have taken 3 now (all 3 neg) and 3 of the cheap ones (2 positive.)

Maybe I am just not clearly understanding how these work.
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Comments

  • PatienceisavirtuePatienceisavirtue Posts: 777
    edited November -1
    I am not sure that you can use the advanced clear blue digital tests to "spot check" your cheaper tests.

    The reason is because, supposedly, the clear blue measures the initial amount of hormones in your system and then stores that level in the memory of the device (also why you are not supposed to change devices mid-cycle or use the device for more than once cycle). It then measures your hormones as they change from day to day. It is why the directions say to begin taking the test once daily starting from day x of your cycle.

    So if you start testing at your peak, it thinks that is your baseline for hormones. Thus, you will not get a flashing or solid smile because your hormones levels would not be increasing at that point, they would likely be decreasing from the time you surge. So you might see a positive on a test (that does not store information) but not see a positive on the test that stores the information.

    This is, of course, in theory, based on how the clear blue advanced digitals are supposed to work. I would just make sure you are following the directions for the tests that you are using.

    You can use the ones MNmommas were talking about to check your cheaper tests.

    I know a lot of people have trouble with the clear blue advanced digitals but they seemed to work for me. I used both the clear blue advanced digitals and wondfos for every cycle. I can tell you that I have gotten several days of flashing smiles (up to like 9 days of them- which seems weird) before getting a solid but the solid smile and the wondfo matched up for every single cycle...except one. That cycle I got a positive on wondfo and a positive on the first response but did not get a solid smile on the clear blue....I also never got a temp rise and likely did not ovulate that cycle. I used 3 different kinds of tests in the beginning to test which ones like liked/worked for me.
    TTC #1: 1-5 BFN; 6- BFP
    TTC #2: since June 2016...
  • kristine403kristine403 Posts: 75
    edited November -1
    Well, my NWC shipment arrived on Friday and I am now anxiously awaiting my positive OPK so I know when to do my home ICI.

    The last time I had trouble with the cheap OPKs I bought, so (by suggestion on here) I purchased the Clear Blue digital ones with the smiley face on them. I still had severl of the $1 OPKs so I figured to save a little money & make the more expensive ones last a little longer I would test on those until I get a positive, then follow it with the clear blue test to try to narrow down how close to ovulation I am.

    Well, I am on CD 12 today and had EWCM so I went ahead and tried the cheap test this morning. I got a positive with in seconds, so I used the same urine sample to also perform a clear blue digital test. That one was a negative (empty 'O' symbol.)

    Now I am getting a little nervous, because I am on a 27 or 28 day cycle & should ovulate around CD 13 or 14. (I am not sure exactly when I ovulate.) But the directions on the digital tests state that you will get a 'O' before any indication of ovulation, followed by 2 fertile days of a blinking smiley & then your 2 peak days of fertility with a solid smiley. So does this mean I am still at least 4 days out from ovulation?

    I had planned to inseminate on the first solid smiley (ICI & I only have 1 vial this round.) Do I need to be testing several times a day?

    Could the clear blue one be wrong? I would guess the cheap one might be, but has anyone had any trouble with the clear blue tests before? I have taken 3 now (all 3 neg) and 3 of the cheap ones (2 positive.)

    Maybe I am just not clearly understanding how these work.


    Hi, Let me share here with you a site I've been using to track my ovulation and it was really accurate and I hope it could help you too, good luck. http://www.ovulation-predictor.org/
  • bright_shadowbright_shadow Posts: 21
    edited November -1
    I started using the digital test this cycle per my Dr suggestion and I had the flashy smileys for 5 days before finally getting a solid smiley face. I kept having challenges with the other ones trying to figure out the shading of the lines. :lol:

    I'm really hoping that you get good results the next couple of days!
    December 2014 -BFN
    February 2015 - BFN
    April 2015 - BFN
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