Oral vs vaginal temping

[happycupcake]

Usually I temp orally, but after reading temping vaginally can give fewer erratic temps and since I know I snore (mouth open) I thought I would try it vaginally this cycle instead. However, I can't seem to find anywhere that says what average vaginal bbt is. I know temping vaginally will be a little higher, but I also know my temps fall within average throughout my cycle orally. They are rocky, but within average range. Vaginal temps seem much higher, and I wouldn't know then, whether I actually do fall within average range or if higher vaginal temps are pointing out an issue. Does that make sense?
I'm reading conflicting information online, vaginally is more accurate, it's as accurate as orally... it makes sense they would be less erratic of course, since my vagina doesn't snore, to the best of my knowledge.
But should they be so high?

 

[sarah2211]

After temping for nearly 12 months, I found that really the majority of your temps are useless. You just need to know what's going on around when you ovulate and that's all. The pre O temps don't really tell you anything and some people believe post O temps can suggest whether it's going to be a BFP/BFN but it's not really accurate. For me, my BFN cycles looked more like they were going to be BFPs than my BFP was!

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I wouldn't stress about it too much. Even if 50% of your temps are accurate you're probably still going to know what's happening with your cycle. A lot of those who have been LTTTC just temp when they think they'll O (usually from CD 11-18).

But if you want to temp vaginally go for it. You'll soon see your own pattern and what's normal for you.

 

[happycupcake]

Thanks. I don't worry about knowing when ovulation is so much as I have a fairly reliable pattern, and I have seen such a variety of charts both ovulatory and pregnancy that look alike, I only pay attention to that wheh it starts to dip hugely.
But, I do believe that in the case of hormonal issues, your follicular phase and luteal phase temps can be quite telling. This is what I'm trying to see, so determining what average vaginal temps are and also whether they are hugely more reliable than oral temps is important for me personally to find out, as I want to be sure I don't have any hormonal issues. I have suspected for a while a possible issue with progesterone, because it dips quite early on in my lp, and after having a few chemicals in the last nine months I'm wondering if I produce the right level of progesterone to support a pregnancy. Temps can give me a good idea of this, but orally I think may be too unreliable for me. Does this make sense? I don't know if I'm rambling

 

[OnErth&InHvn]

Ask for a progesterone blood test. More accurate than temps

 

[happycupcake]

I did, but then I thought things were balancing out. I don't know if the hospital would still have the form from my GP, will have to ask

 

[sarah2211]

I agree with OnErth&InHvn. My charts looked pretty good. My cycles were longer than usual (35-50 days) but after charting for almost 12 months and being quite familiar with what a normal chart looks like, I thought I was ok. They said I ovulated, had a 13 day LP, temps stayed up in the TWW and looked pretty good.

Turns out my hormones were all over the place (low estrogen, high prolactin, high androgens, low progesterone). I did not ovulate on my own.. My fertility specialist said that for normal women, charting is great, but if you have issues with hormones, they're not accurate.


So after 12 months TTC on our own, I started Clomid. I conceived on my second cycle. If I'd listened to my gut and not my charts, I probably would have been seeing the fertility specialist much sooner (he said I could have seen him at 6 months).

 

[happycupcake]

That's what I'm looking for, inaccuracies. Anything that points to a potential issue. But I'm unfamiliar with average vaginal temps.
A blood test obviously is the easiest way to find these things out, I was trying to avoid the hospital as I hate going there.

I worded that incorrectly, inaccuracies is the wrong word to use... I can't think clearly today

 

[stellaluna431]

I have read that vaginal Temps are a lot higher than oral ones in general. I wouldn't worry if I were you. Just because the actual number is higher, the general pattern will likely remain the same. As for average, that will likely vary from person to person just as oral Temps do.

 

[sarah2211]

Yup you'll still see the same patterns. But what I meant was that your chart might look normal but your hormones aren't normal and vice versa. If you've been TTC for some time or your cycles are long or irregular you would be best to see a doctor. My GP ran the initial tests and then we went to a fertility clinic. It wasn't a hospital and although we were a bit nervous we only needed 1 appointment, the clinic was very homely and our doctor was great. But I would have gone through a lot worse to get my BFP.

Good luck.

 

[happycupcake]

See that's why I question it so much. My cycles are quite regular - 25 days on average with usually a 14 day lp, with the exception of two cycles with a 13 day lp and two with a 16 day lp, but since I had early positive hpts with these cycles I believe these were chemicals and that's why my lp was different.
I do tend to suffer with PMS, it was a lot worse a while ago but it's improved a lot. I also usually see a little ewcm closer to af but it's usually something between ewcm/creamy cm. My temps have gone from all over the place to levelling out more. Lp temps always stay within a good range above 36.5, orally anyway. Back in January they were dipping as low as 36.2 and struggling to stay above 36.5 during my lp. So I do think there probably was hormonal imbalance, but I think things are balancing out more now. I have also noticed that with the chemicals I believe I had, the previous two have given much more obvious positives and weren't turning negative until later on, whereas before I saw barely there lines which would be there that day, gone the next.
I'm also having weekly acupuncture for hormone balancing and anxiety.

Also, regarding my hospital aversion I didn't mean to cause any offence with this as I know a lot of people have to go through a lot to get pregnant and stay pregnant. It's a health anxiety thing. And as much as I would appreciate more clarity on this, I also do what I can to avoid any added anxiety because I find panic attacks extremely hard to cope with and draining

 

[OnErth&InHvn]

can you post your charts?

My chart in my signature is all Vaginal temps and you can see i clearly did NOT ovulate.

 

[happycupcake]

Vaginal temping seems to be more level for me so far. I missed a temp during af and another the day before yesterday I put in but discarded (for my own record, so I remembered what I did) because I didn't remember to temp until I had got dressed which is unlike me! I didn't have much sleep clearly. But aside from those they seem good. I can post my previous charts but these are oral temps, they did start to level out more I think, but seem quite rocky and I think this is because I'm a snorer.

So first is from January, up to May are all oral, then will post vaginal temp (this cycle) in a separate post as it won't let me post more than five images at once.

You can see in March my temps went a little crackers, I think this was because I introduced vitamins then, it's the only thing I did differently. April and May I had chemicals

 

[happycupcake]

And current cycle, temping vaginally for the first time, I should be coming up to ovulation in the next few days

 

[happycupcake]

Fairly certain February was a chemical as well, I'm sure I had a faint positive test early on... yes I remember I did but I didn't put it in as I did for April and May. The positive tests I got in May were stronger earlier on than in April, I don't know if that means anything, I don't know if that means anything positive or if it's meaningless

 

[sarah2211]

Your charts look pretty good to me. Nothing that I can see that would suggest you've got issues with hormones. Hopefully you can get some answers

 

[happycupcake]

This is what I was thinking. It's a weird one because I'm certain I did have a problem, then I was put on the pill to try to sort it out, that made things worse so I stopped it after a few weeks and things started to balance out, then they started to be how they were after a while until I started acupuncture and taking supplements. But the odd thing is, I didn't start doing that until March, but my charts before look reasonable, yet I had loads of symptoms pointing towards hormonal imbalance.
Hopefully things are fine. I do think the symptoms I was experiencing have improved hugely