Dear The Cuntsultant,
Do I really need to take basal body temperature (BBT) if I want to use fertility awareness? Everything I read about it stresses me out and just feels like too much to deal with right now. I don't always wake up at the same time and I hit snooze a lot. How important is it really?
Sincerely,
Tepid on Temping
Dear Tepid,
As both a fertility awareness educator and someone who struggles to take her BBT I really hear you! BBT feels daunting initially because it’s a sensitive thing, but I think it can be motivating to understand the point of BBT and why it's an important marker. So let’s start there!
Basal body temperature is the way we confirm ovulation has happened.
This is important for a few reasons:
1) Ovulation is a vital part of health and it's important to make sure it's happening regularly and healthfully
2) Confirming ovulation is important for achieving pregnancy - you want to make sure you had sex at the right times
3) Confirming ovulation is very important for avoiding pregnancy - you want to make sure you've closed the fertile window before having unprotected sex
Cervical mucus and a luteinizing hormone surge are both signs that tell us ovulation is approaching, but they do not confirm that it actually happened.
BBT does not tell us ovulation is approaching, it only tells us it happened.
Based on my training as a Justisse Method fertility awareness educator, cervical mucus should always be your number one guiding sign as to what's happening with fertility in a given cycle and BBT is used as a cross check.
If you're already feeling confident with cervical mucus tracking and can confidently identify your fertile window using the rules of whatever method you're using, then you don't strictly need BBT. Cervical mucus only methods can be highly reliable as well when practiced appropriately.
I usually educate people in two categories for FAM: Trying To Conceive (TTC) and Trying To Avoid (TTA). If you, Tepid, fall into one of these groups then here is my general advice:
TTC: Cervical mucus is your #1 sign and if you want to keep things really simple, just use this to track and time sex. However, I do recommend tracking BBT for at least a few cycles to make sure that you are in fact ovulating AND make sure that your luteal phase is long enough to support a pregnancy (should land between 12-16 days but no shorter than 10 days).
TTA: Cervical mucus is also your #1 sign and I'd reeeeeaaaally recommend adding in BBT for greater efficacy and boosted confidence. Again, if you feel confident in cervical mucus tracking this is reliable for avoiding pregnancy, too, but BBT is going to help you know when you actually ovulated and give you heads up if you ovulated earlier or later than usual. While it may feel like an extra step, it pays dividends in confidence when ovulation happens late and thus so does your period - avoid all those panicky pregnancy tests!
So what are your goals & what are you tracking? What kind of method are you using or planning to use?
The only way to know how much you'll benefit from BBT is to take it - I recommend doing this for at least one cycle and seeing how it goes. Some people find it really motivating once they see their first BBT shift!
TL;DR - BBT is useful for confirming ovulation and this is a really helpful piece of info, but it’s not strictly necessary depending on the method you’re using.
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