Tracking your cycle with your temperature can give key insights into your unique fertility pattern.
What is Basal Body Temperature?
Basal body temperature (BBT) is your resting (waking) body temperature. Before ovulation, waking temperatures tend to be in the mid 97 range. Temperatures typically rise to the mid 98 range a day or so after ovulation. This is because after ovulation the body begins to produce a heat-inducing hormone called progesterone which slightly elevates body temperature.
The BBT chart is a tool that gives a time-lapse picture of hormonal changes that is very useful clinically to determine the best possible treatment for you. The information can be analyzed to you see when you are approaching ovulation, when you have already ovulated, when you should expect your period or a positive pregnancy test, along with other insights that will help you get pregnant and learn about your unique fertility pattern.
Getting Started Charting your BBT
To get started charting your fertility signs, all you need is a BBT thermometer and a fertility chart or app. BBT thermometers are much more sensitive to lower temperatures and subtle changes than a standard ear thermometer.
How to use a BBT chart:
Pick a time when you will take your temperature – i.e. 7am – and try to take it at roughly the same time every day, first thing upon waking, and before any other activity such as using the bathroom, brushing your teeth, or talking on the phone.
Please also mark these items:
Day 1 of your menses and blood flow. The first day of true blood flow is considered Day 1. This is when you would notice blood in the toilet after urinating. If you are spotting, please note it as spotting but it’s not considered Day 1 as spotting can happen at many different points in the cycle.
If you are trying to get pregnant, please mark the days that you have intercourse.
In the “cervical fluid” row please mark the quality of the cervical fluid on the days you observe it. (egg white, rubber cement, lotiony, etc). When you get close to ovulation, your body will begin to develop a wet quality cervical fluid. This cervical fluid varies in consistency but the MOST fertile fluid looks and feels like raw egg white – it is stretchy and wet. This is your body’s signal of peak fertility.
If you are using an ovulation predictor kit, please mark the days it shows positive.
Many other factors can affect temperature. Travel (especially across time zones), illness, restless sleep, alcohol, spicy food, an unusually hot sleeping environment or with heating pads can also cause temperatures to rise. Please note any of these factors in the rows at the bottom with space for notes.
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