is opk more effective than taking bbt? serious answers please?

Question

is it ok that i use an opk instead of charting temps? the reason i ask is that i work night shift and so i can't effectively chart the bbt considering that my sleeping patterns are different. Am i ok with the opk? we really want to get pregnant so if there is any information that i'm not getting i would like to know...

Answer 1

I do both because either can be off by a day or so.

Say your OPK turns positive today. You assume you're ovulating and have sex. However, if you're charting BBT as well, your chart might show a temperature dip tomorrow. When did you ovulate? It's hard to say. To be safe you'd have sex on both days, right? If you weren't charting you wouldn't know that tomorrow was a possible ovulation date.

I actually do almost everything I can. I use OPKs. I chart my BBT. I observe my cervical mucus. I compare charts to previous cycles.

Take this month for example. Nov. 15 I had a drop in BBT and then a spike ... so according to the chart I ovulated then. However, I didn't have egg white cervical mucus until the 17th! So maybe I ovulated then and the temp dip was early, or possibly it was the day between. The OPK turned positive on the 18th. Maybe ovulation was then, or maybe the hormone levels just didn't get high enough 'til then for it to turn positive. So when I look at all three, I see a four- or five-day fertile window.

So using more than one method makes things much clearer for me. It makes me feel like I have all my bases covered and it offers a more accurate view of the situation. Because really, ovulation isn't the date you absolutely want to pinpoint to the exclusion of all others. It's a fertile window that you're looking for ... several days. That reminds me that it could actually happen any of those days (which we're told, but sometimes forget).

If you work the night shift consistently, you could still chart. It doesn't matter what time of day you take it as long as it's always the same. Set an alarm to go off at least four hours after you fall asleep on working days. Wake up just long enough to take your temp and then go back to sleep! I do that a lot, because on weekends I wake up later. I temp at 6 when the alarm goes off (my usual time) and then go back to sleep til 8. Maybe on your days off you sleep differently, but if it overlaps on the alarm time, you'll be fine. If not, wake up early on your days off and take a nap before your alarm goes off. Wake up and take your temp.

If charting still wouldn't work that way, you can observe your cervical mucus too, because that has nothing to do with your sleep schedule. That would give something to compare with the dates given by your OPK.

If the OPK is really all you can do, you should still be fine. It might take longer, but then again, maybe you're really fertile and it won't.

Whatever you end up doing, good luck!

Answer 2

Check out a book called How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby by Landrum B Shettles and David M Rorvik. While I've never had a child myself, this tells the "proper" times at which to try to conceive. I think it says like 10-14 days after your menstrual cycle? (I don't remember...lol) But everything else in the book is interesting as well. Also I think it mentioned when you're trying to conceive, do not have sex every day or multiple times a day, rather every other day (ugh!, huh?? lol). Hope this helps; good luck!!!!