The LH Strip Handbook
How to read your own ovulation tests — including why yours might always be positive.
Ovulation strips cost pennies and tell you more about your cycle than almost anything else you can do at home — if you know when to test and how to read them. This is the guide that should have come in the box.
An LH strip is not read like a pregnancy test. You always have some LH in your urine, so you will almost always see a faint line. A positive means the test line is as dark as, or darker than, the control line — anything fainter is a negative, no matter how clearly you can see it. If you have been squinting at faint lines and calling them positives, that one correction changes your results more than anything else in this guide.
The complete guide, including the editable LH test log
When to test, how to read the lines, the troubleshooting table, and the LH log you can copy out to track three cycles. Enter your email to read it all. We send occasional articles on period and cycle health. Unsubscribe any time. We never sell your information.
Board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, licensed in Colorado.