OPK drop-off and O

[FastHands]

I know people have surges for different amounts of time, but is there any link between the length of surge and when you actually O? My OPKs are still showing nearly-positive, but I think there may be a ssslight decrease this afternoon as compared to last night and this morning (have to wait till I'm home to confirm). Since I don't get a temp shift, I'm trying to figure out if there's any way to know roughly when I O. Does LH always drop to nearly-nill before you O, or is it possible to O while you still have plenty of LH floatin around?

I'm also chronically dehydrated (i know, I know..), so I'm wondering if it's always going to look kind of dark because of that..

Allll I knoooow is that I knooooow nothing.

[awick14]

LH does drop really low but it is still there, just in very low doses.

That's all I've got. Sorry if that's not very helpful.

[VillainV]

OPKs and LH won't tell you whether or not you actually ovulate. You need to check temps to know for sure if you ovulated or not. You can have a strong LH surge and not actually ovulate, or you can have multiple surges in a month and only O on one of them.

Now for each individual, there may be a correlation between the LH drop off and when you ovulate, but you would have to chart for several months including temp to work out your own correlation.

Edited to add: If you feel like you "know nothing" then there a lot of ways to educate yourself on this process. The book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" is really good, as is "What to Expect Before You're Expecting." Also, the Fertility Friend website has some really good (FREE) information about charting, temping, OPKs, etc and the biology behind how everything works. It's really empowering to know how all of the pieces fit together:-)

[FastHands]

Oh I've done a lot of reading, including TCOYF. I know just enough to be frustrated that I can't actually make any conclusions about MY body. lol. For instance, I don't have an observable temp spike, even when I am religious about temping consistently.. so I was hoping for OPKs to be my savior. Looks like that may not work for me either (definitely not this cycle since I missed the beginning, at least).