Pregnancy Forums

Posted: 25 October 2006 at 7:46pm | IP Logged

Relax ladies! I'm not ttc at the moment!

Does or has anyone every charted their BBT when trying to conceive?

The Basal Body Temperature is your body's core temperature. When you ovulate, your BBT increases slightly and so by charting your BBT over your monthly cycle, you can see if ovulation has occurred by a temperature shift. In order to monitor this effectively, you need to use a digital thermometer that goes to 2 decimal places so that the slight shift of 0.1 to 0.2 degrees can be picked up. You also need to take your temperature as soon as you wake, before getting out of bed, eating or drinking.

When we were ttc Ella, I started to track my BBT to see if I was ovulating as my cycle is very erratic so I could never get the hang of using the sticks. The chart showed that I didn't ovulate every month.

We're going to start ttc again at some point and so I decided to start tracking my BBT again to get an idea of what my body is doing post-Ella. The problem is that BBT tracking works best if you take your temperature at the same time every morning, and if you haven't had a disturbed night! Well, there's the floor in the plan as Miss Mears doesn't believe in sleeping through the night!

As a result, my BBT chart is somewhat all over the place. That said, I have seen over the past 2 months that I seem to have a 10 day luteal phase (the time between ovulation and the 1st day of your period). If thats correct, then I may have been plotting ovulation incorrectly in the past.

Anyway, my point/question is, has anyone else done BBT charting and if so, did you do it when suffering from a number of disturbed nights!? If you have a disturbed night, your BBT can be higher than normal and so show a false reading on your chart. To identify the temperature shift when ovulation occurs, you need to look for a reading that is higher than the previous 6 - which with lots of spikes for disturbed nights isn't easy!

Anyone? 

Posted: 25 October 2006 at 7:57pm | IP Logged

holy moly hun! sounds like a lot of hard work!

i have no idea when it comes to ttc stuff as both mine were accidents!

hope everything goes well for you tho, and remember, if in doubt...have sex anyway lol

Posted: 25 October 2006 at 8:01pm | IP Logged

Fab advice Superstar! LOL!

H, I have no idea at all what you're on about. Trust you to be completely abnormal...

Are you sure you haven't made that all up?

Posted: 25 October 2006 at 8:07pm | IP Logged

You're all heathens....!

No I didn't make it up, I'm not that clever! Beasts!

Posted: 25 October 2006 at 8:09pm | IP Logged

I charted before we had Ollie, I wasn't overly successful at it for a few reasons. Firstly I was very good at forgetting to do it lol and also I didn't realise at the time the best way to do it was to plot your temp on a graph as it makes it very easy to see any rise in temp.  Consequently I had lots of note pads with temperatures in that didn't really mean a heck of a lot.

BBT is the only real way apart from blood tests to see if you are ovulating.  With Ovulation Predictor kits you can get the hormone surge of LH that they detect but not actually ovulate.  So charting is the best way to do it.

It is more dificult if you are having broken nights sleep but not impossible.  It's reccommended that if you are having broken sleep you try and take your temp after a period of at least 3 hrs sleep but not in the middle of the night so I would say after 5am.  This is all well and good apart from Ollie normally wakes at 430-5ish and then I get up at 630 making it impossible to chart.  You can't take it in the middle of the night at your body temp naturally fluctuates and can rise or fall depending what time of the night it is.

I think all you can do is try and do it at the same time as best as you can and monitor it over a few months to see if you can make sense of it at all.  There are a few other natural ways to indicate you fertile time too, cervical mucous goes to like a sticky egg white consistency when you are fertile, this is to enable a good environment for the sperm to survive and also to help them on their journey.  At other times of the month the cervical mucous blocks the sperm and prevents them going anywhere.  Some people also check the position of their cervex.  There is a very good book that you can buy called "Taking Charge Of Your Fertility" and it explains all the things to look out for.  It can be used to help conceive or to prevent you getting pregnant naturally.

Posted: 26 October 2006 at 1:03pm | IP Logged

Dizie is that a flaw in the plan or a floor in the plan???

I get confused!

Sorry I cant help as Edward was an accident but good luck!

Posted: 28 October 2006 at 10:35pm | IP Logged

Well it worked for me Dizie !

I've charted on and off for the past 3 years, 20+ cycles and 5 pregnancies.

Yeah it sounds like a bind having to take your temp every morning but you really do get used to it. My cycles used to be all over the place and I never knew when AF was due or when to test - or hell even if we were bding at the right time! It also helps to date a pregnancy as you know when you ovulate and therefore how old the baby should be (saves a lot of stress if like me you have early scans).

You do need to plot your temps on a chart to see a pattern emerging. There are some excellent websites out there which help. I use fertilefriend.com - you put in your temps and they do you graph, identify ovulation, tell you when to test and even show your monthly pattern and rate your chances of getting pg each month! Their basic service if free. The also do a temp corrector if you have had a disturbed night or if you work shifts etc.

Dizie if you think your luteal phase is 10 days, that is at the limit of "normal". It is widely regarded that an lp of LESS than 10 days can stop you getting preg as there is not enough time for a baby to bed into the uterus before AF is due.

Hope this helps!

Posted: 28 October 2006 at 11:04pm | IP Logged

Yes DevonMummy - that does help! When I kept my chart last time, the doctor felt that I probably wasn't ovulating every month and so could possibly have a duff ovary. I'm wondering if thats not the case and its just that having a shorter luteal phase is making it look like I don't always ovulate.

I'll keep charting, it will be interesting to see what my body is doing if nothing else!

Thankyou!