Basal Body Temperature (BBT)

Basal Body Temperature (BBT) is the temperature of your body at rest. It is the lowest body temperature attained during rest, usually during sleep. BBT is an important tool used in Natural Family Planning (NFP) to help identify when ovulation occurs. BBT rises slightly after ovulation due to the increase in progesterone levels. By tracking BBT over time, a woman can identify when ovulation occurs and use this information to plan or prevent pregnancy.

Tracking BBT

To track BBT, a woman should:

• Take her temperature at the same time every morning before getting out of bed
• Use a basal thermometer, which is more sensitive than a regular thermometer and can detect small changes in temperature
• Take the temperature orally, vaginally or rectally
• Record the temperature on a chart or app

A woman's BBT can be affected by factors such as illness, stress, alcohol consumption, and lack of sleep, so it is important to track BBT consistently over several cycles to identify patterns and accurately predict ovulation.

BBT Chart

A BBT chart typically shows a low temperature range for the first part of the menstrual cycle, followed by a sudden rise in temperature after ovulation. The higher temperature range is maintained until the next menstrual cycle begins. Understanding BBT tracking is a key component of Sensiplan, a popular method of natural family planning that combines BBT tracking with cervical mucus observation and other methods for increased accuracy.

All courses were automatically generated using OpenAI's GPT-3. Your feedback helps us improve as we cannot manually review every course. Thank you!