BBT Help

[mbrew180]

Am I taking my BBT incorrectly? I took it at my normal time this AM and it was 97.16 but that felt wrong, and my AVA watch said my skin BBT was 97.84. I slept for a few more hours and retook it after closing my mouth (I mouth breathe badly), and I got 97.64. That's just a huge difference in temperatures, so I feel as though I'm not doing it correctly.

The long story:

Some background, I am TTC with ICI at home w/ frozen sperm. This was my first cycle TTC. I have very regular cycles of 26-29 days, and I can usually tell when I ovulate by mucus and pains. I know I should have started by tracking months ago, but I have had a lot going on in life, and it didn't occur to me until all the other stuff settled down and I was able to focus on TTC.

I am having very weird readings this cycle. This is only my second cycle using this thermometer (Easy@Home from Amazon), so I thought it was the thermometer, and I purchased a new one yesterday from CVS. It's been a while since I consistently tracked, but I regularly tracked for about 2 years, and my charts were always beautiful and spot on, low, ovulation dip, 12-day luteal period (though as of my last cycle it seems my luteal period may have shortened to 11ays). As you see below, everything just looks off. The two discarded temps were after I had two glasses of wine the first night and the second I had gotten up about an hr before I usually temp and forgot to temp so I took it later on and it was really high so I discarded them. I've been not trusting my O date this whole cycle, but I did get a PEAK on CBFM and cervical mucus, but I just feel as though something is off and I'm not confident and sperm is expensive!

 

[mbrew180]

I also had dark positive OPKs from midway through July 3 when my CBFM first said peak all the way through to DPO 1, so I'm not sure if I had a long peak or if what I thought was a positive OPK wasn't until the next day and I inseminated too early.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fq3mFf3dWRqvMn8R9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LXXp7Ndb31oQiwjk6

 

[DobbyForever]

Hours can make a huge difference. I do know women who run colder. I tend to be around 97.5-97.7 at 5-6am pre O. But if I temp before 4am it’s a totally off. So for me the timing has always been my most influential variable outside of drinking 3+ drinks.

that being said what happened CD 16/17 to have open circles? I don’t think it’s off and if it is then I’d say it’s off by most 1-2 days. I haven’t used donor sperm, but I’ve had success with DTD on the first of second day of positive opks. I tend to ovulate on the day my opks are negative (usually positive fmu and maybe smu but net after that). If it’s any hope, I did conceive my son having sex the two days I had peak readings but not day off O.

fxed! Have you tested?

 

[mbrew180]

Thank you for your response!! I'm going to work on timing the best I can, its hard with my job.

My work schedule is crazy because I work 1.5 hours away from home, and I work call shifts. So, in order to inseminate CD 16 I had to wake up an hour earlier to inseminate and make it to the hospital by 0800. This is true for the other early days, too, pretty much. I either had to get up earlier because of work (being on call) or I woke early to use the bathroom and wanted a reading in case I could not fall back to sleep.

I do also have the AVA watch and I do both to back one another, sometimes I sleep enough to get a temp but the watch doesn't catch the full sleep cycle (I swear, my Fitbit will go to bed at 1045 and get up at 0500 and AVA will say I only slept 3.5 hrs) and other times I get a call and wake up before I can temp to answer the call and the watch captures.

 

[DobbyForever]

Gotcha gotcha. I mean unless you have a history of multiple peaks/failed start ovulation after a positive opk I really wouldn’t stress it. I used the cb advanced opks not the fertility monitor and never had issues. Everyone I know who used the cbfm said it was super accurate. So I think you were really solid with your timing by inseminating those two days. Is the concern with today’s temp difference being the difference of the lower temp being a potential temp drop signaling AF vs the higher temp is still in line with your post O temps? Because there’s always a chance it could pop back up tomorrow. I’ve had that happen before. But I’d say at 11/12dpo I’d have caved and tested with either a frer or cb early or a walmart cheapie (the 89c purple cassette). Keeping everything crossed!

 

[mbrew180]

Thank you!! AF got me this morning. It was my first TTC cycle, so I'm ok with it, but overall glad to start over and hopefully not worry so much about timing this time and take your advice with timing and have a better chart.

 

[DobbyForever]

Sorry to hear that. FXed this cycle is your cycle