Planning a Baby  Discussion Forum

Hello P,

can you please tell me how you usually maintain to take your BBT at a standard time every day. Does the food taken last night and the hour you slept last night matters with the temperature we take in the morning?

Can you suggest me a few tips to properly take down BBT.

Thanks,
luv,
Keerthi hopingfortejas replied. Awesome Krsna, i also remember reading this in one of teh sites i regularly google into :) ....

but do not ahve a hard copy like this...

Keerthi, i think krsna has explained everything ... :)
Good luck ....
-P krsna replied. hi..

ur question was for P, but i had read this long back from a website (dont remember the site address but had a copy in my hard disk). thot it was pretty elaborate and explanatory.

hope it helps (tho' i confess its a pretty long one)

good luck,
krsna

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Charting your BBTs is really pretty easy. Basically, what you are doing is taking your temperature first thing each day and plotting the temperature on a chart. What you are looking for is to see a shift of at least .4 degrees Fahrenheit after ovulation making your chart biphasic (showing low temperatures before ovulation in the follicular phase, and higher ones after ovulation in the luteal phase).

*1*
Take your temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed or even speak -- leave your thermometer at your bedside within easy reach so you don’t have to move much to get it. If you use a glass thermometer, make sure you shake it down before going to bed.

*2*
Try to take the temperature at as close to the same time each day as possible -- set an alarm if you need to. Staying within a half hour either side of your average time is a good idea because your temp can vary with the time (i.e., if you usually take your temperature at 6 a.m., it is OK to take your BBT between 5:30-6:30, but the closer to 6 the better). The normal variation is by up to .2 degrees per hour -- lower if you take your temperature early, higher if you take it late.

*3*
It is best to take your BBT after a minimum of 5 hours sleep, and at least 3 in a row is preferable.

*4*
You can take your temperature orally, vaginally, or rectally -- just stay with the same method for the entire cycle.

*5*
You should try to place the thermometer the same way each day (same location of your mouth, same depth vaginally and rectally).

*6*
Plot your temperature on your chart each day, but refrain from reading too much into it until the cycle is done.

*7*
Some women, not all, have a temperature drop when they ovulate. If you see this drop, it is a good idea to have sex in case you are ovulating.

*8*
What you are looking for is a temperature shift of at least .4 degrees over a 48-hour period to indicate ovulation. This shift should be above the highest temperatures in the previous six days (you can allow one temperature to be thrown out as inaccurate - fluke, illness etc).

*9*
After you see a temperature shift for at least three days, or at the end of your cycle, you can draw a coverline between your follicular phase and luteal phase temperatures. With luck, it is easy to see a clear shift and draw your line between the highest follicular phase BBT and the lowest luteal phase BBT as in the sample above. The main reason for drawing this line is just to clearly delineate that your chart is biphasic.

*10*
Look at the chart at the end of the month to analyze what happened.

*11*
Chart for a few months and look for patterns.

*12*
If your temperature stays up for 18 days or more after ovulation, you should test for pregnancy.

*13*
One thing to note is that women with ovulatory cycles but with irregular cycle lengths, the greatest variation from cycle to cycle should be in the follicular phase. The luteal phase should be relatively constant (within 1-2 days). So if one has a cycle that ranges from 28-34 days, and a luteal phase of 14 days, ovulation would occur somewhere between days 14-20 -- not the middle of a cycle, not day 14 . . . This is the biggest mistake women with long cycles make when trying to conceive.

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