TTC Articles

Basal Body Temperature and Timing Intercourse
How to Get Pregnant via Fertility Charting

Start keeping track of your temperature on the first day of your menstrual period (first day you see red blood) with a basal thermometer. Take your basal body temperature before you get up and after at least 5 hours of continuous sleep, preferably at the same time each day. Do not move, do not eat, do not drink, and do not smoke before you take your temperature. Write down the temperature on the BBT chart. On the day of ovulation there is sometimes, but not always, a drop in temperature. About 1-2 days after ovulation there is usually an increase in temperature by at least 0.2 degrees. Calculate your coverline after you have detected ovulation. In a typical biphasic (=ovulation) chart, the temperature usually stays up until your next menstrual period.

Tempartures sometimes drop a couple of days before or after your menstrual period comes. When your menstrual period has come, it's helpful to indicate in the "Bleeding" row on your chart at the end of your cycle that it has come (an 'M' is seen). This allows us to calculate the cycle length and the corpus luteum phase (time between ovulation and next menstrual period). If there is no menstrual period and the temperature stays up longer than 15 days, that's a good indication that you may be pregnant. It's not recommended to adjust your temperatures. Please follow guidelines and chart your temperature exactly as it shows up on the thermometer.

Timed intercourse means that you have intercourse only when you are about to ovulate - when you are most fertile. To time intercourse, you need to predict ovulation accurately with an ovulation test or fertility monitor. While timing interourse prior to ovulation (or the day of ovulation) is effective in predicting fertility, regular intercourse two to three times a week is also a key to success (and accounts for testing errors or irregularity in the menstrual cycles). Most women ovulate irregularly on occassion, even those with regular cycles. Having sex after ovulation won't get you pregnant, so making love two to three times each week, every week, assures that enough sperm are around when you ovulate. To improve your chances, you may want to add to this routine and make love daily as ovulation approaches. Use tests and monitors as necessary.

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Predicting Ovulation

• Ovulation Calendar (tool)
• The Anatomy of Ovulation
• FAQ: How can I tell that I'm ovulating?
• Fertility Charting and Methods of Predicting Ovulation
• Charting Ovulation to Pregnancy
• How to Fertility Chart: Basal Thermometer & BBT Charting
• How to use your basal thermometer
• BBT Charting & Timing Intercourse
• Progesterone, Ovulation & BBT Charting
• FAQ: What is "fertile cervical mucus?
• FAQ: How much will my BBT increase?
• FAQ: Can the position & feel of my cervix tell me if I'm ovulating?
• Printable Fertility Chart
• Changes in Fertile Cervical Mucus
• Am I Ovulating?
• FSH and Fertility: How Follicle Stimulating Hormone Can Affect Your Ability to Conceive