You may or may not know much about tracking your basal body temperature, but I think there is so much power in having this information available to you.
I first got introduced to what I will refer to as “temping” from here on out when my husband and I got engaged and we needed to sit through a Natural Family Planning(NFP) class. At the time, I knew this was important because we wanted to have children as soon as we possibly could, and I knew this tool would help us get there. I didn’t realize just how important temping would be to our journey, though.
At the time of this class, I already knew I was dealing with a hormone imbalance that led me to having irregular menstrual cycles. The only thing I knew about this imbalance was one, the name of it, and two, the fact that I was not having the normal 28-35 day cycle so many other women were having. I actually had never had a normal cycle on my own in my life. I was, at the time, on birth control after getting the diagnosis of the hormone imbalance. I knew I was going to stop taking birth control before long because I wanted to prep my body well in advance for pregnancy. We were two years out from our wedding because of college, and I wanted to use that time to be as prepared as I could for what I hoped would be a honeymoon baby.
I was gifted a basal body thermometer by our NFP instructors, and I started tracking my basal body temperature (BBT) every morning at 5AM. Your BBT is not the same as your regular body temperature. It’s actually a measure of your resting temperature, or the lowest recorded temperature when you are truly at a state of rest. In order to get an accurate picture of the trends that you will chart using those temps, you will want to collect your BBT at the same time every day using a regular basal body thermometer. Tracking this information will help you start recognizing when and if you are ovulating. This is because when you ovulate (release an egg), your body’s resting temp (BBT) will increase slightly. The hormone progesterone is what triggers that shift in temperature because progesterone increases after ovulation in order to prepare for what could be a pregnancy. Your temperature would continue to have a slight increase or remain higher until the end of the cycle(which is the amount of time between the first day of your bleed until the day before your next bleed) and your period begins again. If you would end up pregnant, your temperatures would not fall, but instead remain higher.
Once I got off of birth control and continued to track, I really started learning what was going on with my body while dealing with that hormone imbalance. I was using LH tests (ovulation tests), but they were unreliable for what I was dealing with. The results always indicated I was ovulating, but my body would basically gear up to do so, and it wouldn’t happen. I realized through temping that I wasn’t ovulating but 3-4 times a year. Learning what trends to look for gave me more information than the doctor gave me. I didn’t have a clue as to what was truly going on below the surface before I saw that my temperatures were not following the patterns it should have been. Instead, I was able to see that I was probably dealing with a lot more estrogen than was normal and that when I did ovulate, my progesterone “spikes” were not all that high. My luteal phase (the phase of the cycle right after ovulation and before menstruation) was short. This meant that my hormones were not balanced or where they needed to be at all. This also made me realize that we were going to be dealing with a lot more preparation than I thought in order to get pregnant. Most women were concerned with the maybe six days throughout the month that they could get pregnant. I was looking at a possible 6 days every four months.
My infertility journey was a struggle, but if I had not had the information I had from tracking BBT, I would not have been able to accurately focus my efforts on what I truly needed to in order to come out on the other side of that. I would have been guessing instead of focusing all my energy, time, research, and resources at producing a healthy egg regularly and having the balance I needed between all the hormones involved in regulating a cycle.
If you track these temperatures consistently for a few cycles, you would begin to recognize your temperature patterns and be able to see both if ovulation occurred and if you need any type of hormonal support. Hormones are not limited to the sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc). Those are important, obviously, but all of your body systems are governed in some way by a type of hormone, and often we can tell when other body systems need support by looking at our BBT trends. For example, I recently had a delayed period. For many, this would automatically lead to the assumption that they are pregnant. I, however, knew that was not possible because of how my BBT was trending. From day one of your period up until ovulation, temperatures tend to trend downward. Looking at my chart, I knew something wasn’t right because my temperatures were abnormally low. While they should be on the lower side, they remained on the extreme end of low. This told me that I probably needed to support my thyroid.
Your thyroid has some very important jobs to do, and one of those is to regulate the reproductive system. Consecutively low temps (usually lower than 97 degrees Farenheit) could indicate that the thyroid is in need of support. My temperatures were staying between 96 degrees Farenheit and a little over 97 degrees Farenheit, which is not my usual. Normally, I stay right around 97.3 until after ovulation. At first, I didn’t think too much about it, but once I got to my normal ovulation day (day 20-21 for me) and didn’t notice any shifts or continual increases in temps, I knew I was both not ovulating and needing to provide some dense nutrition to my body to get things back on track. I did just that, and I ended up ovulating around day 43. That cycle was 53 days.
I knew I wasn’t pregnant when I didn’t start around my usual day 32-34 because the information provided through tracking my BBT did not support that idea. I could see that ovulation had not occurred and because of how the temperatures were trending at the beginning of the cycle, I could also conclude that I needed to support another area of the body, which happened to be the thyroid for me. This is something that can happen to women especially during the summer months. If I had not been temping, I would have been spiraling with “what-ifs” and wondering why this was happening at all.
Tracking BBT also allows me to see just how well my progesterone is performing. I do have a history of low progesterone in pregnancy, so if I would have been pregnant, I would be able to see if I needed intervention in that area as well. Progesterone must be elevated enough to sustain a pregnancy, and some women need support in order to continue with a healthy pregnancy, especially in the early days. I was able to catch this with my second pregnancy. Women who have a luteal phase shorter than 12-14 days may need that such support.
Whether you are trying for or avoiding pregnancy, the information provided in tracking your temps throughout your cycle is key for more than just reproductive health. Menstrual health is more than just about whether or not you’re ready for a child. Your menstrual cycle is a key factor in just how healthy you are as a woman.
There are different options available to you when it comes to tracking your basal body temperature. The first, and most obvious, would be to get a simple basal body thermometer and input your results daily and manually on an app like PreMom or Fertility Friend. There are even more affordable options like this thermometer. As long as you collect your temp at the same time daily and input the result onto a chart that you have access to easily, you’ll quickly be able to spot trends for yourself.
My first BBT thermometer was this Easy@Home one that is now improved to be able to sync your temperature automatically to the PreMom app. It held my temperature on the screen until I was fully awake and ready to record. Since I was collecting data so early, this was convenient because I didn’t have to fully wake up for the day at 5AM when I wasn’t going to work. Now, it seems the process can be even easier since the thermometer will input the data for you.
If you are wanting an even simpler route with even more insights to your health, you could always go with the Oura Ring that is compatible with the Natural Cycles app. This device has hands down been the best health tool investment and has allowed me to learn so much more about my body–through fertility stats, recovery insights, sleep information, and more. I am able to draw conclusions and support my body better than ever before based on the information I get wearing my ring (not to mention how stylish it is). All you need to do for your BBT is wear the ring to sleep, and when you wake up, you will open the app and the information syncs to the Oura app. If you choose to use the Natural Cycles app, you then open that app and the information from the Oura Ring syncs to the Natural Cycles app and provides you with a clear chart. You can grab $40 off your ring with the link provided here.
BBT is an easy way to get to know your body on a more intimate level. If you need help navigating this wellness modality, please feel free to contact me. Let’s chat!
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