When The Temperature Is Hot
There are a variety of methods available today to help you pinpoint when ovulation occurs: the best time to conceive. Besides home fertility kits that can test hormone spikes and the low-tech cervical mucus testing you can do on your own without fancy equipment, charting your basal body temperature (BBT) is a time-tested method for charting your cycle and learning how to spot the time that ovulation will occur. The information you generate on your BBT charts may even help your physician to determine the reason you're having trouble conceiving.
First Thing
The basal body temperature is your temperature at rest. The best time to take your BBT is upon wakening, first thing in the morning. So, have your thermometer at the ready next to your bed, and keep graph paper and a pen or pencil handy, too. By charting your BBT each morning, you'll begin to see a pattern emerge.
Within just a few days before ovulation, a woman's basal body temperature will undergo a very slight rise. This small spike is due to the changing balance of hormones at this time of the woman's cycle. The increase in BBT will range from anywhere within 0.5 degrees to 1.6 degrees. Your basal body temperature will stay at this slight peak until menstruation begins. If instead, joy of joys, you find you're pregnant; your temperature will stay at this slight elevation all through your pregnancy.
Normal Elevations
The average normal basal body temperature for a woman ranges from 97.2-97.7 degrees in the time leading up to ovulation. However, it's quite normal for slight elevations such as those experienced during ovulation, to occur at any time during a woman's cycle. How can you tell the difference? Increases in temperature due to causes other than ovulation tend to be of very short duration. This means that a short-term rise in temperature doesn't signify ovulation.
If you'd like to try this simple home fertility predictor, you won't need any specialized equipment other than a regular oral thermometer, some graph paper, and a pencil or pen. The most important factor in using BBT in a successful manner is to stick to the routine of charting your BBT over the course of a few months. That way, you can see a personal cycle pattern emerge that can help you understand at what point in your cycle you should be having conception sex.
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Hi, Will incorrect menstruation change ovulation?