How do I chart my temp? and what doe the results indicate?

[JeanJean]

I am new to the world of TTC and keep hearing about charting temp..can anyone explain what this means and how I should go about doing this?

Thanks so much for your help - i have very irregular periods and very long cycles so thinking this may help.

 

[missaria]

Hi! The first thing you need to chart is a BBT thermometer. You can't use a regular thermometer for reliable charting. You can find BBT thermometers in the drug store near the pregnancy tests, or on Amazon (amongst other places). Then, make sure to sign up for Fertility Friend or a similar site where you can enter your temperature every day. It's important to take your temperature at the same time every day, and do so after at least 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Take it before getting out of bed, drinking anything, or even talking, as these can alter the reliability of your temperature.

There are a lot of benefits to temping. For me, the biggest ones are confirming that I actually am ovulating (even OPKs don't confirm this) and identifying how long my luteal phase is each month. It's only through temping that I've discovered a problem with my luteal phase.

Good luck!!

 

[JeanJean]

Thanks so much for the reply! Will use all those tips

 

[burrr]

Just to add, Fertility Friend is great. Don't feel you have to sign up for the paid version straight away, the free version is good too. It works out your ovulation from all the information you feed into it. It also has loads of good pages with information about TTC and charting on, immensely helpful.

You can use it online but there's also a smartphone app which is good.

If you do want to sign up for the paid version, look out for discounts, sometimes they offer it at a special price, or sometimes they advertise their discounts on their FB page, that's how I got my latest one.