BBT readings screwy or am I out of luck?

Question

I JUST started tracking my bbt three days ago. I'm not supposed to get AF until the end of august but my lower back has been achey and I'm not crampy but more like sore and stiff in my lower abdomen. I don't know what the cause of that is, but my hopes are being let down because I've read that your temperature stays around the high 98's to 99's after ovulation if you're pregnant... can any one shed some light on this situation and explain to me how BBT's work before/during/after ovulation and when to know your pregnant?

Answer 1

It's impossible for you to tell from your temps whether or not your pregnant.  You don't know yet what an average temp (coverline) is for you, so don't even start reading into your temps.  Keep taking and recording them, month after month you will start to see a pattern and learn what is "normal" for YOUR body.  I am only on my second month of charting my BBT and already I see a pattern and my normal temps.  Your temps are lower before ovulation and sometimes, not always, your temp will dip right before ovulation, then you will have a big temp jump, which confirms your ovulation.  Your temps should stay up above the coverline until AF arrives, and then they generally drop damatically either the day before or the day of AF arrival.  If you sustain high temps for 18 days or longer accompanied by late AF, then you can assume your pregnant.  Sometimes, and this is isn't common, you will notice an implantation dip in your temps, generally anywhere from 6-10 days past ovulation.  This temp will generally go below the coverline, then spike back up the next day.  This is also a good indication of pregnancy, but again, it's not common.  Your best to just keep charting and like I say after a few months you will begin to see a pattern and learn what your temps mean.  I love charting, it's so neat to see the patterns do what they are suposed to do.!!!  

Also, you should use http://www.fertilityfriend.com to chart your temps, it takes all the guess work out and shows everything.  it's free to use unless you want all the bells and whistles, then it's about $50 for a year.

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/20c8...  there is a link to my chart if you would like to see how it works!!

Answer 2

Honestly, temps vary from woman to woman.  A normal "high" temp for you could very well be 97, it just really depends.  I think the temperature method is the most frusterating way of TTC as temps DO fluctuate and they don't always rise automatically after ovulation!  If you do want to go with this method, start taking your temps the day your period starts until the day your next period starts.  After ovulation, you "should" see a shift in temperature rising about .5 to 1 degree.  Your temps should stay up in that range until AF shows up again or you are pregnant.  If you started temping in mid-cycle, it will be VERY hard to read your chart as you won't know what is "low" or "high" for you.  My advice is, if you start AF again, start temping on that day and go for the rest of your cycle.  If not, then you are probably pregnant and won't have to worry about it! :)  Good luck!

Answer 3

BBT???  AF??? what are you talking about  

Answer 4

Your temps don't mean anything when you start them that late in your cycle.  The trick to temping is to start at the beginning of your cycle and observe the overall pattern.  It's normal for some women to be in the 98 range after O and NOT be pregnant.  Again, it's not the actual temps you're looking at but the pattern of your chart.

Good luck.

Answer 5

When you wake up in the morning, the very first thing you must do is take your BBT.  BBT must come before you even sit-up or get out of bed.

For BBT to be valid, you must not be ill (i.e. fever will obviously override BBT), you must have gotten 4 hours of uninterupted sleep before taking BBT, and BBT must be taken about the same time each morning.  (I don't recall exactly, but it works something like you subtract 0.1 degrees to BBT for every hour past your 'normal' wake-up time.)  You must also use the same method to taking your BBT (under arm, oral, or most consistant would be vaginally).

Your exact numbers will vary from month to month (so you can't put much stock in the "around high 98's").  

You start recording BBT once your period is complete (you can record temps during your period just to stay in the habbit, but their values don't count).  During the time before ovulation, your BBT should remain relatively consistant temperature with some small variations.  In a large number of women, they will see a dip in their BBT just before ovulation (but not all women do).  After ovulation, BBT should jump to 0.3 degrees above the temperatures encountered before ovulation (so if preovulation you had temperatures between 97.4 and 97.8, post ovulation, your temperature should be above 98.1).  Your temperture will remain high for several days.  Just before AF arrives, you should see a significant temperature drop.  For some women (not all) if they become pregnant, a few days after implantaion, they might see another temperature shift.  If your BBT remains high for more than 17 days, you are almost certainly pregnant and it's time to take an HPT.