Charting your basal body temperature is an easy way to figure out what is going on with your menstrual cycle – helping you to understand when you ovulate, how long your luteal phase is, and how long your cycle is.
Your body temperature rises after you ovulate and will remain elevated throughout your pregnancy, so if you have regular menstrual cycles, you can detect your ovulation date pretty easily. The only problem with using this method to conceive is that you will not know when you ovulated until AFTER the fact. If you need to know before you ovulate you can buy ovulation predictor kits. This method only helps you so you know for future cycles.
Here are the steps for charting your basal body temperature
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Buy a basal body temperature thermometer at your local store. Do not use a standard thermometer as it does not calculate smaller increments.
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Begin charting on the first day of your menstrual period (the first day of bleeding).
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Take your temperature first thing in the morning, before getting out of bed. Any activity could raise your temperature.
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Try to take your temperature at the same time every day, and with at least 3 hours of consecutive sleep.
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Record the temperature on your BBT chart with a dot. If the temperature is odd – place a star instead of a dot. Your temperature might be skewed if you did not get enough sleep, if your room was too hot or cold, you are sick, or you drank alcohol the night before.
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Draw a line from the previous days temperature to today’s temperature.
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If you notice a jump in temperatures (approximately 0.4 to 0.6 degrees) that will signify that you ovulated within the past 24 hours.
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Continue charting your temperature and start a new chart if your menstrual period returns.
After you’ve charted for a couple of cycles you should start to see a pattern. You should be ovulating around the same time every month, and having the same luteal phase every month. It’s also a good record to keep if you need to go see a fertility specialist.
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