Basal body temperature tracking, also known as BBT tracking involves taking your temperature each morning before you get out of bed. This gives an accurate measure of your body when it’s completely at rest, your ‘basal temperature. ’Because of the way hormones affect the female body, if everything is working as it should, you’ll notice a small increase in temperature in your cycle that lasts around two weeks. It will then drop again and stay low for around another two weeks. Since this temperature shift is only slight, you’ll need a special basal thermometer (not a regular fever thermometer) to track accurately, and using an app can help to make things easier. It’s something you quickly get used to doing, and it’s so worth giving it a try as you can find out a lot about your reproductive health- as well as your health in general. Here are three reasons to give it a go.
It helps you to understand your body
It’s strange to think that we own our bodies and have done for our whole lives, but still, understand so little of them. It’s difficult to know what’s going on inside, and worryingly that there could be health issues or problems that we’re not even aware of. Ask yourself, how well do you really know your body? When it comes to female health, do you know when you ovulate? Whether your cycles are actually regular, and if there are any underlying issues like PCOS? While it’s not foolproof, BBT tracking is a non-invasive way to collate a whole lot of data about yourself. Since the monthly cycle is linked with our health in general, any issues here could flag up reasons to be tested for other things- from hormone imbalances to thyroid issues.
It gives you a hormone-free, reliable type of contraception
As women, our contraception options aren’t always that nice. Most of them involve the use of hormones in some way, which many women can have negative side effects from. From weight gain to acne to mood issues, while they sometimes resolve after a few months they don’t always. Not to mention there are long term health risks associated with hormonal contraception such as breast cancer. If you want to try something more natural, BBT tracking is a great option. There are actually only a few days each month where it’s possible to get pregnant, and tracking your basal body temperature allows you to pinpoint where these are reliably and accurately. That way you can abstain or use a barrier method on those days, instead of being stuck taking hormones permanently.
It can help you to conceive when the time is right
On the flip side, knowing when you’re most fertile makes it easier to conceive when the time is right. Women that track their BBT often conceive much quicker than those who don’t, simply as they are able to time things accurately. Since trying to conceive can already be quite stressful, knowing your peak fertile days in the month helps to give you control instead of simply guessing and hoping for the best. There are lots of issues that can arise in pregnancy too, you need to consider things like genetic testing, health screenings, amniocentesis risks and benefits and much more. So at least with BBT tracking, you can make the conception side of things run as smoothly as possible.
Have you ever charted your BBT?
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