Your
body temperature shifts subtly throughout your menstrual cycle, and tracking
its changes is a great way to understand your body’s rhythm and to help figure
out when you are most fertile.
Over time, focusing on the day-to-day differences will give you insight into how your body works, and this information will be very useful when you’re trying to conceive. It can also give you insight into what is going wrong if you have trouble conceiving.
Over time, focusing on the day-to-day differences will give you insight into how your body works, and this information will be very useful when you’re trying to conceive. It can also give you insight into what is going wrong if you have trouble conceiving.
To
track these differences, you’ll need to take your temperature first thing every
morning—that’s when you get your basal, or baseline, body temperature (BBT)—and
record it on a special chart so that you can interpret the significant details
of the pattern revealed. You may also note your observations about your
cervical mucus and the position of your cervix on the chart.
Body
temperature alone can’t tell you when you ought to be having sex, because the
significant change in temperature happens right at ovulation, and by the time
you detect it, you’ll have missed your fertile phase for that cycle. A BBT
chart can tell you for sure that you
are ovulating, a key piece of information to have if you want to conceive a
baby. And it can help you determine whether your luteal phase is long enough to
allow for implantation. (More about that is coming up.) The true power of the
BBT chart comes in conjunction with tracking changes in cervical position and
mucus, as we’ve been discussing. Taken all together, these signs will point you
toward your peak fertility.
We
have two pieces of advice before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to track
your temperature. The first is a basic recommendation to bring your chart with
you to any and all appointments with your health care practitioner, as he or
she may want to adjust treatment accordingly. This is true for any practitioner
who knows how to read a BBT chart, but especially so in Chinese medicine, where
herbal formulas and acupuncture approaches will vary throughout your cycle. In
addition, a professional can interpret the chart for you if you haven’t
mastered that yourself yet.
Which
brings us to our second piece of advice: don’t get bogged down in the details
of tracking your fertility this way. Anyone can learn to do this quickly and
easily, and most women enjoy the process of tuning in to their bodies more
acutely than they ever have before. Like pregnancy itself, this can give you a
fresh appreciation for and awe at the wonders of the human body. As this book
goes on, you’ll find that information from a BBT chart can help you identify
your fertility type and sometimes help diagnose a fertility problem or suggest
a treatment. It also can provide a wealth of insight for a Chinese medicine
diagnosis.
If
maintaining a BBT chart just seems to you like another item on your already
oppressive “to do” list rather than a helpful tool, it may not be for you. Or
you may need to find some happy medium, such as letting your doctor interpret
your chart for you, or keeping track of your cervix but not your temperature.
Find what works best for you, with an eye to decreasing, not increasing, your
stress. If you don’t want to keep a chart, don’t. If keeping a chart is
stressing you out, stop. If your doctor or practitioner thinks that keeping a
chart would provide important information, you can always chart later if you
decide not to now.
In
any case, you need only about three months of BBT charts to detect your personal
pattern. If things are changing and you or your doctor needs more information
on how they are changing, you may want to continue charting beyond three
months. Or if you simply like watching your rhythms unfold, by all means go
ahead and keep charting.
How to Chart
The
basic idea is to take your temperature every morning and note it on your chart.
After you’ve recorded a bunch of temperatures, you’re going to look for certain
trends in how your body changes through your menstrual cycle. Your temperature
will be lower before you ovulate and higher afterward, normally varying by at
least 0.4°F.
We
recommend using a special digital BBT thermometer, which will be more accurate
at measuring smaller increments of temperature than a regular thermometer. You
can buy one at any drugstore for around $10. It will give you a readout in only
about one minute.
Before
you go to bed at night, place the thermometer within easy reach so that you
will not need to move much to get it in the morning. When we say you need to
take your temperature first thing in the morning, we are not fooling around. We
mean first thing: before you cuddle,
before you drink coffee, before you pee, before you even speak. Any activity
will change your temperature, and you want to get a reading when you are as
close to inactive as possible. (If you are one of the holdouts using a glass
thermometer and we can’t convince you to upgrade to a faster digital model, be
sure to shake it down before you go to bed so that you don’t have to in the
morning.)
You
should take your temperature after a minimum of five hours of sleep if at all
possible. Any reading you get after less sleep won’t be accurate—your body
temperature won’t have had enough time to settle down.
Take
your temperature orally, and do it exactly the same way every time, right down
to putting the thermometer in the same place in your mouth. Take your
temperature at as close to the same time each day as possible. (But no alarm
setting on weekends! Sleep in when you want to or can.) If you have a regular
wake-up time during the week, that will be enough to establish the trend. Take
0.1°F off your temperature for each half hour you sleep beyond your usual
temperature-taking time. Likewise, if you wake up earlier than usual, add 0.1°F
for each half hour of sleep you have missed. And don’t worry if you miss a day
here or there. As long as you have enough data points to show a trend, you’ll
have what you need.
Start
a new chart on day 1 of your cycle—the day you get your period. Mark down your
temperature every day, then play “connect the dots” to join them together into
one line. There’s space on the chart for you to note any unusual events in your
life—things that might stress you out or otherwise affect your cycle. Big
presentation at work? Fight with your partner? Moving day? Jot it down. This
may help you make sense of irregularities in your cycle that might otherwise
cause concern. You should also record your observations about your cervical
mucus and position. You may want to use the chart to record details about your
period—color, amount, length, pain, clots, stops and starts—as well.
You can find a blank chart to download here : http://sh.st/t3alF
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