When my naturopath suggested I start taking my BBT I vaguely remember reading about it at some point but hadn’t really ever understood what it meant. She went on to explain to me that throughout our menstrual cycles our body’s internal temperature shifts. Our Basal Body Temperature is your body’s natural waking temperature. A ‘normal’ body temperature could be considered 37 degrees C (or 98.6 degrees F) however just before ovulation you should see a little dip in temperature and then just after ovulation (around day 14 for a ‘regular’ cycle) our temperature rises about 0.4-0.5 degrees. Your temperature should stay elevated until your period comes about 12-14 days later, or if you’ve conceived, it will stay elevated. 

So how is this helpful? If this is something you are interested in, and you have had a ‘regular’ cycle ( regular in this case is a 28-30 day cycle), go for it! By charting your BBT you will most likely start to see a pattern every month and can therefore more accurately determine when you might be ovulating! Exciting! My suggestion if you’re going to go this route and you have a smart phone, get the app Period Tracker which I talked about here. Period Tracker will chart your BBT as well as a number of other things. If you upgrade from the free app ( I think one step up is about $2) it even starts to chart your temperature for you which is a huge bonus! 

How does it work? As you wake up, before you get out of bed, reach over and put that baby in your mouth. Try to take it consistently every day around the same time each morning. Note that they are extremely sensitive. This means that anything from getting out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or having a little too much fun the night before, can affect your morning temperature. Try to just make a note on the days that you might be doing something differently or if there was a disruption and you got out of bed – this way when you look back you won’t think it’s a weird spike or dip and you’ll know what probably caused it. I’ve read that it’s usually good to do it for at least 3 cycles before you can really start to see a pattern so try embrace this new morning routine if possible! 

Now, for those of us with not so regular cycles this can be a bit of a challenge but not impossible! Keeping a chart can help to keep things in perspective and really find our own balance within our bodies. Since we don’t know when we will be getting our cycle it’s difficult to tell what shift in temperature means what and if there is an actual pattern to it! I took mine for almost six months straight about a year ago and at that time my hormones were so unbalanced that it didn’t really make sense for me to do it. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to see the shifts and try to find a pattern among the numbers but ultimately it left me feeling more frustrated than excited. However! I will say this. After working hard to regulate my hormones and balance things out I am now in a place where I could start to do this again. Another bonus to healing my body naturally! Just try to keep in mind that irregular cycles do not indicate infertility, it just means there is a little more room to figure things out and over time know that you can help to regulate your own cycle. 

There are a few other important things that go hand in hand with taking your BBT and that’s noticing other changes in our bodies throughout our cycle. In TCM medicine (and in my mind!) the menstrual cycle is a really good indicator of a women’s inner balance. Bleeding once a month is a healthy thing and it is a good indicator of our ovaries’ hormonal activity which can be super helpful to any health practitioner that’s treating you. Along with charting your BBT, you can also start to take note of changes in your cervical mucous throughout your cycle. This is an amazing indicator of what’s going on internally and can be an excellent tool along with taking your BBT to see when you’re ovulating. You can read more about it here and of course if you have any questions, send me an email! If you choose to use the period tracker app you’ll see that it has areas where you can record other things such a physical symptoms, emotional systems as well as cervical mucous changes and BBT. 

{ A basal thermometer is more sensitive then a regular thermometer, meant for reading the small changes in temperature that occur over the course of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Basal thermometers can either be made out of mercury glass thermometer or digital. I purchased a digital one just for the ‘beep’ feature. Since you’re taking your temperature as your waking up and before you get out of bed, it’s easy to fall back asleep or at least shut your eyes as your taking it. The ‘beep’ feature wakes you up and tells you it’s time to record your temperature! You can find them in most drug stores in the ‘family planning/feminine hygiene’ aisle.}