BBT confusion

Sunflower1

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Hi, I've been charting my basal temp for months now. My temp doesn't go up until a day or 2 after I think I'm ovulating. Does anyone know if it's supposed to go up the day after or can it take a day or two? Am worried I am miscalculating.

Thanks
 
Mine varies, sometimes after ov it goes up the next day (only gradually, it then climbs for a few days until it is high). Sometimes mine actually starts climbing before I've ovd, this cycle it dipped down and then started to creep up for two days before I actually ovd (I know for sure when I did as I felt it pop).

Is your pattern generally the same? As long as you are getting the rise you should be oving. Do you combine temping with anything else? Opks, cm etc?
 
Thanks Snowbee. I was using an ovulation thermometer and then one month it started ferning constantly. I am losing a lot of weight (to help fertility) so I am guessing the increased estrogen is to do with that. I monitor CM, although I'm not sure I am getting enough...so many questions! I am not using an opk...what's in them exactly? I use ovulation test strips and although I get an LH surge it doesn't always go as dark or darker than the test line.

I was getting clear dips and luteal phase rises in BBT, but the last couple of months have been less clear. (I take my BBT all times of the early morning so I'm sure that messes it up a bit)
 
Opks are ovulation tests. Not taking your temp at the same time could account for some differences. I know I experimented with taking mine and I took it if I woke up early in the night, again at normal time (but didn't get up) and again after a lay in and the differences between those few hours were huge!

Weight gain or loss can also throw your body (even if it is good gain or loss) so your body could be adjusting to the changes. Are you having regular cycles? If so I wouldn't worry too much about the opks not getting quite dark enough as chances are you are just missing your surge. My surge is usually very short (a couple of hours) so it is easy to miss.
 
That's a relief. Last month I had my first obviously positive ovulation test and was sooo happy. My cycles are very regular (26-28 days) but periods very short (I think that could be slight hormone imbalance due to weight loss) - 48 hours total.

When you use an ovulation test, do you wait til the positive test to try, or do you try for a few days before as well? We are trying every other day during fertile window as that's what our fertility doctor recommended. And my CM starts 5 days before I get a positive test.

It all sounds so neat and easy in the fertility books but it's so confusing in real life! Sorry about all the questions! It's the first time I've been on a TTC forum and I'm a little lost and confused. Thank you for your help!!
 
That's ok, we are here to help! Everyone here is really friendly and helpful so ask away.

We didn't really have a plan for sex days, but we generally both want it a lot and tend not to go more than a couple of days without through my cycle. I try to make sure we are well covered in the fertile window, usually start making sure we aren't going less than every two days the week before and try to go every day when I think ovulation is due (difficult for me as my cycles are an irregular nightmare.).

This cycle I ovulated on CD17, we dtd on CD15 (we did before this too, but although they say sperm can live 5 days I have my doubts as to whether they can in me as I'm quite inhospitable, so I don't think any earlier would have counted towards it!), CD17, CD18, CD19. I was expecting to ov on CD18 so was slightly annoyed about missing day 16 but it obviously didn't matter.

My cm is way out of sync, I tend to get mine a week before ov. I did mention this to my fertility clinic but they didn't seem concerned (and put it down to my pcos and my hormones being a bit out).
 
How do you know the exact day you are ovulating? My ovulation tests say that I can ovulate up to 48 hours after a positive test...it doesn't seem very precise! My doc says sperm can live for 3 days in hot weather but I'm not sure either. We've pretty much hit the mark 3 months running and still nothing.

Interesting to hear your CM is early too...I don't have PCOS but I do have one cyst and I wonder if that affects things. I am on a special diet to help try and get rid of it (avoiding dairy and soy because of estrogen) and it is shrinking with the weight loss.

Thanks again for your help. I think I was driving my husband nuts talking about this stuff all the time!
 
I usually feel ovulation and so can pinpoint it exactly. Occasionally I don't feel it (I think it happens overnight when I don't) and so I rely on temping to tell me it happened.

Are you in the UK? There is no oestrogen in British/European dairy produce, only in the US (and a few other countries) that don't have the same legislation as we do here and use different farming methods that are illegal in Europe.
 
I thought that the estrogen came from the cows themselves. I didn't know that it was different between the UK and US. Thanks.
 
No. It gets into the milk through the different farming methods. Very basically - In Europe for a cow to be in milk it has to have a calf, we then milk the cow, feed the calf with her milk (this is what we do, some people send all the milk for food and feed the calf with milk powder formula instead) and the excess goes as food for humans. In the US they don't put their cows in calf, instead they inject with hormones to make the cow think it has given birth and thus it produces milk without a calf but a side effect is that the hormones pass into the milk.

I work on a dairy farm so have first hand experience of this. Personally I dislike the US system, but it is much more profitable and they can produce cheaper food. I would rather pay more and have a cow that is living a more natural life. Our cows get maternity leave each year and have a break, on the US system they never do, they are just pumped for more and more.
 
The US system sounds horrific...I thought it was like that everywhere so it's good to know the UK is more ethical.
 

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