New doctor says I don't have to chart BBT?

Question

My old doctor is who started me on charting. I charted the last 4 months, and you could only tell that I ovulated on 1 chart. My new doc says that charting is not reliable and that I should use LH tests instead. What is your opinion on this?

Answer 1

If your cycle is very regular, and you have the patience to chart/BBT, then that is a great way to figure out roughly when you ovulate.  BBT only tells you once you've already ovulated, so it is more to figure out what days to plan TTC next cycle.

if you do not have a regular cycle, LH tests are the way to go. LH also obviously works for regular cycle, so it is the better and easier option.  LH tests tell you BEFORE you ovulate, so it is more accurate/better.

Answer 2

i charted for a long time with no luck. your best bet is the opks they were very easy to use and accurate. i did find the clear blue where the easiest to read because they either have a line or they don't there is none of that guess the shade as with some

Answer 3

The only reason he says that is because he doesn't know how to read it. Charting your temperature is a valuable tool for women to understand what their body is doing. Find a doctor who shares that perspective and is able to read your BBT chart.

Answer 4

My experience tells me that your new doc has it backwards.  OPK's aren't reliable because you can get a negative and still ovulate (my friend ended up being pregnant after 2 weeks of negative OPK's at her ovulation time), not to mention they are hard to tell if they are positive or not.  Charting has never let me down.  It has been nothing but accurate.  I suggest that you keep charting along with using OPK's.  Charting is free, so why not?  Plus, if you only ovulated once out of 4 charts then you will be spending a bundle on OPK's trying to catch your Lh surge:)

Answer 5

Funny because my doctor told me the exact opposite. He said that if I could tell from charting my BBT on a chart when I ovulated, then I didn't need to waste my money on OPK's to detect the LH surge. I found, for myself, though, that I prefer to use both. Sometimes I think I ovulated on a certain day based on when my BBT spiked, but my luteal phase doesn't seem to line up with it, confusing me about when my period is due and late. Using the OPK's with the charting, helps me to balance the two together. In addition, despite what your doctor says, charting can help you to note any changes in your cycles, and I find that a chart just helps me to keep track of it all better. What's the harm in doing it? As for me, I wouldn't want to neglect anything that could help me get pregnant after TTC for 11 cycles now. The stress can be overwhelming and I don't want to think that I missed my opportunity to conceive by neglecting a really easy task that could've helped.

Good luck.