Thursday, January 22, 2015

My Experience with BBT Charting-Post #1


            Hey folks! As promised in my blog update post, I'm going to be branching out into some new areas this year, one of which is fertility. I get the distinct impression that this is NOT an issue for most of my readers, but I do know that many people still keep quiet about infertility, so I hope some of you out there get some use from these posts and know that you are not alone!
            To give just a little background, my cycles started getting erratic (and sometimes non-existent!) right after my husband and I got together, oddly enough. My body having regular cycles is like having an "on again, off again" boyfriend. Sometimes I've been able to get them regulated, other times I have gone for months on end without having one. But, that's a whole other can of worms, really.
            Since I've had pretty regular cycles (for myself) over the past year and a half AND, as I've mentioned before, my husband and I aren't exactly trying to NOT get pregnant, I thought I would finally give in and try this whole basal body temperature charting business I have read a little about. First and foremost, I should/do need to lose weight before getting pregnant again, but I thought I would use this charting business as an experiment of sorts, if nothing else, to figure out 1) If I even ovulate and 2) Find out when since my cycles are longer than "normal".
            I am at the beginning of cycle 2 of charting and I can already tell a difference from the first month. For whatever reason, my temperatures don't seem as erratic as the ones on the chart in the picture. Maybe it's from drinking more of my hormone regulating tea than normal last month? I was also starting to question the accuracy of the thermometer, but maybe it was just me since my temperatures aren't fluctuating as crazily this month so far.
            I also used some urine ovulation tests I received for review in conjunction with charting the first month. I thought it would be interesting to see if they correlated like they should. i.e. Getting a positive ovulation (LH) test a few days before a noticeable and sustained increase in BBT. The results? Honestly, it would have been hard for me to tell just by looking at the chart.
            However, I at least have an idea now of when I ovulate...at least on one side. ha ha I'm planning on keeping up with the charting, but using more of the ovulation tests when it gets closer to the time I *think* I should be ovulating to see what happens.

            Have any of you used charting or ovulation tests when trying to get pregnant? Do you think they helped or were you indifferent toward them?

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