you down with opk?

Ok, that title was dumb. I apologize.

(For those of you not "hip" to the "cool, new" songs- that was a reference to the song "OPP". And, for those of you not down with the pregnancy lingos... OPK is an Ovulation Predictor Kit.)

There, now that we have that settled....

OPK's don't really work for me. I can't say for certain if they never will, but because my cycle is so erratic, it's hard to know when to use them. OPK's detect the Luteinizing Hormone (LH) surge which occurs approximately 24-36 hours prior to ovulation. So, another factor is that some people just don't have a very strong LH surge, so they may not work for some people. Which could be me, who knows. Now also, if you've ever purchased them, you know they are NOT cheap. Well, when I first started out, I bought this device. It is cheaper in the long run. However, when you have a long cycle, these aren't the best. And once you hit like 45 days or something, it's like "oh, hold up! Your cycle length is unacceptable. I refuse to continue." So, maybe if my cycles start regulating (like with clomid) it will be a better option... however, it also has been said that OPK's don't work sometimes when a person is taking clomid.

So, that's helpful.

Anyway, once I had NEVER seen a positive on my OPK machine, and once I passed the 45 day mark and it wouldn't work for me, I stopped using it. Now, I could have gone and purchased the individual ones, but seriously they are SPENDY, and I never know when I'm going to ovulate. So, at $40 for a box of 7, and I'm on cycle day 68 now... well, I'd be spending a LOT of money on something I don't know if it would even work.

However.... this week I bought some. Because I just finished my clomid/dexamethasone 6 day treatment to try and trigger ovulation, so I thought, maybe this time! So, I took one last night, and this afternoon, and was greeted by this:

And, just so you know, that is a big 'ol negative. Because if you are fertile, the test looks like this:

See? All smiley. And my test result above is all faceless and sad. BOO. Just ONCE I'd like to see that damn smiley. It sure would be helpful. Anyway, I have 5 tests left and will see this week if I can get that smiley face to pop up.

:)

~M