Basal Body Temperature
Definition:
Your basal body temperature is your body's temperature at rest. To get an accurate measure, your temperature must be taken in the early morning, before getting up or moving around. (Sitting up and walking around increases your body's temperature slightly.)
Charting your basal body temperature is a way to track ovulation. After ovulation occurs, most women notice a sustained increase in their basal body temperature.
Charting your basal body temperature (BBT) is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to track ovulation. Your basal body temperature is your body's temperature at rest. After ovulation, your basal body temperature will shift up by at least four-tenths of a degree. If your temperature remains elevated for at least three days, you can be pretty sure that ovulation has occurred on the day before the temperature rise.
Because the shift in temperature is so small, it's important to take your temperature at the exact same time every morning, before you get up or move.
Time Required: A few minutes every morning
Here's How:
1. Before you go to bed at night, place a thermometer within your reach by your bed. It's very important that you can reach this thermometer without needing to get up or move around when you wake up. Getting out of bed, or even sitting up, will throw off your temperature and skew the results.
2. You should take your temperature at the same time every morning, with no more than a 30 minute difference from morning to morning.
3. When you wake up, reach for your thermometer and take your temperature. Do not get up to go to the bathroom, and don't get up to turn off your alarm (keep that near by, too, if you can't stand it going off while taking your temperature.)
4. You can take your temperature orally or vaginally. It doesn't matter which way you choose, as long as choose one and stick with it day to day. If you tend to sleep with your mouth open, taking your temperature vaginally may be better.
5. Follow the directions for your thermometer to get the best reading. If you're using a mercury thermometer, make sure you leave it in place long enough to get a final reading. That may take up to four or five minutes.
(If you do use a mercury thermometer, be sure to shake it down before you go to bed at night. Shaking it down when you wake up can throw off your results.)
6. After you take your temperature, write it down. Some BBT thermometers come with a memory function, which is nice, though you can use a regular thermometer. Keep a pen and paper by your bed so you can jot down your temperature and the time you woke up, until you have time to fill this information into your chart.
Tips:
1. If you need to wake up extra early, or later than usual, take your temperature as you always do (without getting out of bed, right when you wake up). Mark the difference in time on your chart.
2. You need to have slept at least four straight hours for your temperature to be accurate. If you get up often at night to go to the bathroom, or have trouble sleeping, this can throw off your results. You should take your temperature anyway, and note that your sleep was interrupted on your chart.
3. Basal body temperature charting does not work for everyone. If you don't notice a sustained rise in temperature, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are not ovulating. Still, you should speak to your doctor.
4. While basal body temperature charting can pinpoint when ovulation occurred, it isn't a good way to predict ovulation. Since you need to have sexual intercourse before ovulation if you want to get pregnant, you should look for other signs of ovulation so you can time sexual intercourse better. One way to predict ovulation is by tracking your cervical mucus.
Fertile Cervical Mucus
Definition: A mucus secreted by glands found in and around the cervix, cervical mucus changes in consistency throughout a woman's reproductive cycle. Cervical mucus may also be referred to as cervical fluid.
The job of cervical mucus is to either prevent anything from entering the uterus through the cervix (by becoming sticky and thick), or to nourish and help transport sperm through the cervix (by becoming more abundant, stretchy, and closer to the consistency of raw egg white.)
Also Known As: cervical fluid
Fertile cervical mucus is a clue that ovulation is coming. To get pregnant, timing intercourse before ovulation is important. If you can detect when your cervical mucus is most fertile, you can predict ovulation and time sex for pregnancy.
While ovulation can be tracked by taking your basal body temperature (BBT) each morning, a BBT chart will only confirm ovulation after it occurs. (BBT charting involves taking your temperature at the same time every morning, before you get up, and marking this baseline temperature on a chart or graph. When the temperature rises at least 0.4 F, and remains raised, this indicates ovulation.) After ovulation happens, it's too late for baby-making sex. However, if you learn to track your cervical mucus, you may be able to predict ovulation before it happens, and time sex accordingly.
Some women may feel squeamish about checking their own cervical mucus, but it's really an empowering way to monitor your body's changes and help you get pregnant.
Ovulation and Cervical Mucus
As ovulation approaches, your cervical mucus (sometimes abbreviated on BBT charts as CM) changes from a consistency not-so-kind to sperm, to a more fertile variety that sperm can survive and swim through better. Right after ovulation, the cervical mucus changes back to the less fertile kind.
While everyone's body is different, the general changes that cervical mucus go through are dry or sticky, to creamy, to wet, to a raw egg white consistency, and then, back to dry and sticky.
When your cervical mucus is in the wet or egg white consistency stage, ovulation is approaching. This is the best time to have sex, if you want to get pregnant.
How to Check Your Cervical Mucus:
1. First, wash and dry your hands well.
2. Find a comfortable position, either by sitting on the toilet, squatting, or standing up and putting one leg up on the bathtub edge or toilet seat.
3. Reach one finger inside your vagina; your index or middle finger is probably best. (Be careful not to scratch yourself.) Depending on how much cervical mucus you're producing, you may not need to reach so far, but getting a sample from near your cervix is ideal.
4. Remove your finger from your vagina and observe the consistency of whatever mucus you find. Do this by both looking at the mucus and rolling what you find between two fingers (usually your thumb and index finger). Also, try pressing your fingers together and then slowly moving them apart.
· If what you find seems sticky, or findings are scant, you're probably not ovulating yet.
· If what you find is creamy, ovulation may be coming, but not just yet.
· If what you find is wet, watery, and slightly stretchy, ovulation is very likely close. Find time for some baby-making sex.
· If what you find is very wet, stretches between your fingers for an inch or more, and resembles raw egg white, your cervical mucus is very fertile. Ovulation is right around the corner, and now is the ideal time for intercourse.
5. If you are charting your BBT, you should mark down on your chart your cervical mucus findings. Abbreviations often used are S for sticky, C for creamy, W for wet, and EW for egg-white cervical mucus.
Tips:
· Don't check your cervical mucus during or right after sex, or when you're feeling sexually aroused.
· You can also check your cervical mucus by looking at the toilet paper or your underwear, but sometimes you can get a better sample by reaching inside, as described above.
· If you have trouble finding anything, checking your cervical mucus after a bowel movement may be easier. (Don't forget to wash your hands well.)
· Some women, especially those with PCOS, have several patches of fertile-looking cervical mucus throughout their cycle. If this is your situation, predicting ovulation by tracking cervical mucus might not work well for you. Taking your BBT will help you pinpoint which patch of fertile mucus was related to ovulation.
· Some drugs, including antihistamines and, ironically, Clomid, can dry up your cervical mucus. In this case, you might not find as much fertile cervical mucus before ovulation.
· If you never or rarely notice wet or egg-white consistency cervical mucus, let your doctor know. Infertility can sometimes be caused by something referred to as hostile cervical mucus.
· Some women notice that their cervical mucus becomes wet or almost egg-white like again right before menstruation. Obviously, this isn't a sign of impending ovulation.
· A day or two after sexual intercourse, you may confuse semen with wet cervical mucus. With experience, you can learn how to differentiate the two. But for the purposes of getting pregnant, assume that you may be approaching ovulation and mark your calendar or chart accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment