Confused About My BBT

[lauralimarie]

Hello! So here is a little background about me. I am 28 and my periods were irregular most of my life. They tended to be around 22-24 days apart with heavy heavy bleeding that lasted 7-9 days. As I was never thinking about pregnancy, I did not concern myself with the short cycles.

When I graduated college and my relationship with my DH was getting more serious, I got on birth control to prevent pregnancy. I was on birth control for about 2 years. We got married and now a year into our marriage we have talked about having a baby. I read online that you should stop birth control pills about 6 months before you want to start trying to have a baby, so I did. My first 5 cycles after birth control were exactly 27, but the last two cycles I had were 22 and 23 days respectively (Back to how I was pre-birth control).

My husband and I have not been using protection, but we have not been actively TTC by counting ovulation dates. I only get to see him about 3-4 nights a week because I work nights and he works days and our schedules have us missing each other (I leave before he gets home and he leaves before I get home). So I started tracking my BBT to help figure out when it would be best to BD.

I am only on my second month of charting, but I am confused when I ovulated because both charts show a clear increase in temp around cycle day 9 which lasts for 4 days then drops back to baseline on day 5 after the spike. It then spikes even higher for the remainder of my cycle. It looks triphasic to me, but I was not pregnant last month and as my temperature dropped today I don't think I am pregnant this month either. I was disappointed this month because I thought I may be pregnant, I have had severe breast tenderness and nipple tenderness but with the temperature drop I think AF might be coming tonight.

Can anyone help shed some light? I'm scared if I O'ed around my second spike (cycle day 13-14) then my luteal phase is too short. But if I O'ed around cycle day 9 then it is long enough. I'm just confused, help?

I could not figure out how to attach my charts, so I took pictures and attached the pictures.

 

[gina236]

I am obviously not a doctor or anything so take this all with a grain of salt but your charts look like you are either not ovulating or may have an issue with progesterone. You also have quite a few open circles. It is very important to take your temp at the same time every day after 3 solid hours of sleep. If you are varying the time you take your temp that could be why it is not showing a good pattern. I would suggest buying some opks to see what day you should be ovulating. And I wouldn't worry about the one low temp. That is probably just a fall back. No one temp should be looked at too closely. The key is the pattern that the temps all together make. I hope I helped you a little. FX that you catch that eggy with your hard schedules!

 

[lauralimarie]

I am obviously not a doctor or anything so take this all with a grain of salt but your charts look like you are either not ovulating or may have an issue with progesterone. You also have quite a few open circles. It is very important to take your temp at the same time every day after 3 solid hours of sleep. If you are varying the time you take your temp that could be why it is not showing a good pattern. I would suggest buying some opks to see what day you should be ovulating. And I wouldn't worry about the one low temp. That is probably just a fall back. No one temp should be looked at too closely. The key is the pattern that the temps all together make. I hope I helped you a little. FX that you catch that eggy with your hard schedules!

Thank you Gina. Unfortunately I work nights (7pm-7am). I work 3 days a week, so 3 times a week my temperature is taken in the afternoon and the other days I take my temperature in the morning. There's really no way around that :/. The doctor said he did not think I was ovulating because my cycles were too short, bad news all around

 

[lauralimarie]

I did however have the egg white consistency CM around cycle day 10 - 13. Wouldn't that signify ovulation? I'm so new to this I'm not certain

 

[gina236]

Ewcm is definitely a sign your body is trying to ovulate but doesn't mean that it is. If your doctor will do it, they can do a blood test at I think CD 21 that will tell you if you have ovulated. Taking temps at such drastic different times will definitely throw off your chart so maybe you are ovulating but just not getting accurate temps to show it.

 

[lauralimarie]

Anyone else have suggestions?

 

[psychochick]

It's hard to tell, maybe use OPKs as well. It's unfortunate that you can't temp on time; I would usually try to temp on time right around the middle of the month when I think I would be ovulating. Once you've confirmed O, then you can be more relaxed about it. You're also missing some temps when you are on your period, those are still recommended as baseline temps especially if it turns out that you O on day 9, then you won't be able to know that if you don't have at least 6 temps before O.

I simply recommend using OPKs if you can't temp on time everyday. ewcm is a good sign but it doesn't confirm successful O unfortunately. Also, your cycles aren't necessarily too short given that in the past they were also 22-24 days. My mom had 22 day cycles and was very fertile so it's not related.

 

[lauralimarie]

My schedule varies week to week, for instance on week I'll work Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and the next I'll work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So my days and schedule are always changing.

But even with those changes, the two charts seem to have a very similar pattern. Here they are overlayed on top of each other.

I guess I thought since they followed a similar pattern that would mean I was ovulating, but like I said I'm so new to everything. I'm absolutely terrified I'm not ovulating, so it is driving me crazy wondering.

Does the overlay make you think anything different? Or does it still look like I'm not ovulating?

 

[lauralimarie]

Any opinions are appreciated. I don't go to the doctor until the end of April and now I'm worried I am not ovulating.