Welcome to the blog! A basal body temperature thermometer traditionally has one purpose: tracking BBT by women who are seeking to becoming pregnant. BBT charting is a proven and effective method for determining when conception is most likely to occur according to fluctuations in body temperature.
If you are seeking to find out more about tracking your BBT and possibly purchase a basal body temperature thermometer, welcome parenthood will help you about it!
What is Basal Body Temperature?
Like you might expect, a basal body temperature thermometer measures basal body temperature, or “BBT” for short. The word “basal” refers to the temperature that is necessary in order to maintain life (in a human beings case, approximately 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.)
So, all the basal body temperature thermometer does is measure your body temperature. The difference between the BBT thermometer and other thermometers is that it takes your temperature internally, either orally, rectally or vaginally, as opposed to a temporal (forehead) thermometer or tympanic (ear) thermometer.
How Does it Track Fertility?
The science behind charting your BBT is that your temperature will show a significant (as far as a tenth of a degree can be considered “significant”) change from the time before you ovulate (the follicular phase) to the time after you ovulate (the luteal phase.)
What you’re looking for are lower temperatures prior to ovulation and higher temperatures after, by about 4 degrees.
By tracking your temperature daily you determine a baseline for what is “normal” so you can determine when this subtle increase occurs and predict roughly when it will occur during subsequent months. The best time for conception is three to five days prior to ovulation, so you can see this method takes a bit of time to put into effect.
Charting can be done with a free printable or printed chart many websites and fertility books supply, on certain fertility websites, with pregnancy planning software or even simply graph paper.
However you choose to track your BBT, you must record it consistently (daily.) The best time to take your BBT is in the morning prior to eat, drinking or using the bathroom, and best done before you even get out of bed.