starting temping need a little help..

[babyrose]

So after 8 cycles TTC I think temping is going to help alot I'm just not sure where to start or anything Really! That probably sounds stupid!

[willitbe]

Look up the website fertilityfriends. Com , it is very helpful for this. Hope temping helps.

[willitbe]

Look up the website fertilityfriends. Com , it is very helpful for this. Hope temping helps.

[OrangeLily]

Buy the book ' Taking charge or Your Fertility'

[OrangeLily]

Woooops sorry Taking Charge OF your fertility

[babyrose]

Thanks willitbe and orangelily, I've heard that book is quite good will have a look out for it. Heading over now to fertility friend.

I took my temp this morning Yay! So what about all the dips and temperature rises how does that work?

[Carolra]

You have to take your temp first thing in the morning, before you get up... and it should be on a thermometer that does 2 decimal places (i.e. 36.13 etc). Your temp should go up by .4 deg or more after you ovulate and then will go down again around the time of your period. So this won't help you plan when to have sex, because by the time your temp goes up, you have already ovulated, and its too late to have sex. But over a couple of months, it should give you an idea of when you ovulate and how regular your cycle is. It will also help you identify any problems with your cycle... lots of good information on the internet, have a google of "basal body temp" and this link is a good starting place.

[babyrose]

Thanks carolra thats very helpful will have a look at that link now.

[OrangeLily]

It's also useful if you are like me and have crazy cycles! Due to temping I'm pretty sure I've ovulated this cycle, didn't OV last cycle and did the cycle before. However, this cycle it wasn't until day 24. Which is much better than day 50 something!

I also found vaginal temp to be easier and more reliable than oral so you may want to try that.

[babyrose]

I read somewhere that once you have a temp rise for 3days you probably have ovulated but how do I know which day it was on?

Good luck with your cycles orangelily, have you been to docs about them?

[jaykay987]

If you use Fertility Friend it does a lot of the complicated calculations for you.
Though as a previous poster said, it is retrospective, so it only confirms ovulation after it has happened.

I believe ovulation occurs before the temp rise. (This might not be right). Any particular reason why you want to know the exact day?

I've only started temping this month, but have learnt a lot so far. I have had my second temp rise today, so think I ovulated two days ago. However FF should confirm this tomorrow once I've had a third subsequent raised temp.

Once you sign up to FF they send you a fairly detailed course (including retro looking PowerPoint presentations!) which really help you learn more about it all. I would definitely recommend - plus it's free!

Good luck!

[RaRaZ]

Could I hijack slightly? Just why do you need a thermometer that does two decimal places if you're looking for a rise of 0.4? I know the more decimal places the more accurate, but wouldn't it only be a real problem if you were looking for a rise of 0.04? Sorry, not trying to be difficult here; I'm just struggling with this too.

[blueamber]

I use a thermometer that measures celcius with one decimal and that's all you need! It's a normal digital boots one, you don't need a special bbt one. For instance, in the days before ov my temp was 36.3, then after ov 36.7. Shows a clear rise. It counts it as a rise when it's been more than 0.2 degrees, which means you definitely don't need a thermometer with two decimals!

Usually when you get your temp rise you ovulated the day before, but I'm thinking it could also be a day and a half before, where you ovulated thought the night but your oestrogen hasnt risen enough for a temp rise the first morning after, so you get it the following day.

I use the fertility friend app. its quite handy and you can also monitor other fertility signs, such as cm.

[RaRaZ]

My temp doesn't show any particular pattern . It dipped on the day of ovulation and leapt right up the day after that, but other than that it's been all over the place. Do you think that the fact that I work shifts and get up at very different times/etc could affect it?

[jaykay987]

I think shifts do affect it, though you should be able to see a pattern.

The rise you got - did it go higher than any of your 6 prior temps? What happened the next day?

[blueamber]

Yes, you have to take it around the same time. But I did read that if that's not possible, you can estimate your temperature as it rises about 0.1 degree per hour. So say you're used to taking your temp at 7, but you sleep in one day and take it at 9, you subtract 0.2 degrees fro m the temperature. However, It's all estimation and it might not help to show a pattern. In that case you might have to rely on other signs. But in your case you did see a pattern on the day it matters most, so that's good!

[RaRaZ]

Ok, thanks

Jaykay :
Day prior to ovulation (first day of Peak fertility) = 36.1
Day of ovulation (second day of Peak fertility) = 35.9
Day after ovulation: 36.3
Day after that: 36.2

Since then, it's varied betwen 36.0'C and 36.5 - but, as I say, I do work shifts so it's been after different lengths of sleep, sometimes after extremely disturbed sleep, different times of day....etc.

[jaykay987]

what about the days before those?

I think the day after ovulation your temp is normally higher than the prior 6 temperatures. This should help you confirm even if you have a much harder pattern to read.

[jaykay987]

Sorry - forgot to add - how do you record your temps?

If you use FF properly the times of your temps are also recorded and then FF still estimates when you ovulated. I think it knows when to ignore temps or adjust to try and see the right pattern. Might be worth a try to see if it agrees with you!

[RaRaZ]

I just started using FF today - so that won't help right now, damn it. I've been writing down my temps prior to that, but I only started on the day before ovulation. So it jumped up by 0.4 if you compare the day before ov and the day after. That's good, right? I'm pretty sure I did ovulate as I follow cervix and CM symptoms, as well as how I generally feel, and I've been seeing a GP and an accupuncturist who both expected me to ovulate this month w/o problems. I've got my Day 21 blood test tomorrow though so I guess that will confirm it!

...but are changes in temp something to worry about if I did definitely ovulate? I mean, can they indicate conception or lack of, implantation/lack of, impending mc, or anything like that?

[RaRaZ]

BlueAmber : That thing you mentioned about temps rising by 0.1 per hour: does that still work if you've had the same/less sleep than normal? Like if one day I finish work at 2045 and am in bed by 2300 and up the next at 0700, and then the next day I finish work at 0300, in bed by 0400, but have to be up by 1000, would you still expect my temps to be higher due to not getting up at 0700, or would that be over-ruled (can't think of the word I want!) by the fact that I'd actually got less sleep??? Hope that makes sense!

[jaykay987]

Although there are some patterns for implantation/conception/pregnancy they don't seem to be very reliable.

I think the main one is continued high temps in the run up to AF which can indicate you might be pregnant. But if this is month one of temping - you won't know what "normal" is for you - so not sure if you'll be able to read anything into it before you'll be able to POAS anyway.

[RaRaZ]

Yeah, good point. Thanks Jaykay. Just wish AF would hurry up and appear (or preferably not!) so I'd know - the wait is killing me!!!

[jaykay987]

I knew I was an over-planner and a bit of a control freak but I didn't realise how impatient I am too!

I hate not being able to control all of this. Why can't we just "order" babies once we're ready?!

[RaRaZ]

Same. My problem is that normally if I want something, I make it happen, and with this I can't. I want to be able to say 'I've done X, Y, and Z, so this will happen' and it just doesn't work that way! Hate waiting. Hate doing everything 'right' and it still not working. It's not fair.

[babyrose]

I got alot of info there thanks!