Selasa, 13 April 2010

Trying to conceive: How to take your basal body temperature

By Monica Beyer

If you've been trying to get pregnant for a few months with no success (or are even just starting out) you may want to look into charting your basal body temperature for important fertility information.

What is basal body temperature?

Your basal body temperature is simply the temperature of your body at rest. More specifically, it is the temperature of your body after a good night's sleep and before you get out of bed, move, roll over or have sex. In keeping track of your temperature and entering it on a chart you will begin to notice certain important clues to your fertility. The most valuable clue -- and the one that you will probably be the most interested in -- is your ovulation date. Knowing when you ovulate will enable you to know when to take a pregnancy test and after a few cycles you will be able to see the big picture of your reproductive health.

Why is it important?

In the physiologic foundation of basal body temperature (or BBT) lies a simple truth about hormones. There are several hormones at play during your reproductive years and they coordinate quite well in order to first ripen and release an egg, and then to nurture your womb's lining in preparation for a fertilized egg. The hormone that helps you determine whether ovulation has taken place or not is called progesterone. This hormone is responsible for raising your BBT just enough to allow for your uterine lining to become even more warm and inviting for that fertilized egg -- an incubator of sorts. And by charting your BBT you can usually determine when this has happened!

Getting started temping

You will need to look for and purchase a thermometer that is made specifically for taking your BBT. The reason that you probably don't want to use your regular fever thermometer is because it may not be quite as accurate as a BBT thermometer. One that is backlit and also which beeps when done is even better, such as this one from BD.

Quick charting tips

You should make an effort to remember the following guidelines when temping in order to remain consistent and to keep your charts as accurate as possible:

* Temp at the same time every day. Many women will set their alarm clocks, take their temperature, and go back to sleep (even easier if you have a thermometer that has a memory function). Even a half hour earlier or later may cause your results to be inaccurate and may render your chart unclear. We don't want that!
* Temp before you do anything -- especially before you get out of bed and use the bathroom. Just grab your thermometer and temp!
* If temping orally, don't eat anything or take a drink before you temp.
* Make sure, if possible, that you have had at least 3 or 4 hours of consecutive sleep before taking your temperature.
* If you don't have a thermometer with a memory function, keep a small notebook and a pen on your bedside table for recording your findings.
* You can take your temperatures orally, but if you find that you are a mouth breather or your temps vary based on the room temperature you might explore temping vaginally. Just be sure to maintain the location throughout the entire cycle -- changing from one to the other will keep your chart from being accurate.

Charting your temps

You can make your own charts with pen and paper -- or even on a computer, with a program like Excel. You can also find some pre-made (blank charts) in a very popular fertility book. Please check out Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. Not only does it provide in-depth information on fertility, charting and making it all come together, it is full of hope and inspiration. You can also find software programs that will help calculate your ovulation date for you. Good luck!