· By Kirsten Karchmer
Bbt Patterns That Indicate Fertility Issues
What I Learned From Looking at Tens of Thousands of BBT Charts -What Your Basal Body Temperature Can Tell You About Your Chances of Getting Pregnant.
In my 20+ years of practice, I’ve seen tens of thousands of BBT charts. I quickly started recognizing distinct relationships between the waves of a woman’s BBT chart and her ovulation patterns, quality and quantity of cervical discharge, estrogen and progesterone levels, FSH, egg quality, and likelihood to present with PMS. In fact, with one look at a BBT chart, I can usually pinpoint the major reasons a woman is struggling to get pregnant.
While many women keep BBT charts as a way to predict ovulation, there's actually SOOOOOO much more a BBT chart can tell you — and when ovulation is occurring is usually the least important.
Now, when I view a woman’s BBT chart, there are a few things I immediately look for as warning signs of fertility issues:
Issues in the Follicular Phase
The follicular phase is the part of your menstrual cycle beginning with your period and ending with ovulation (ideally cycle day 1 through cycle day 14). In this part of the cycle, temperatures should remain below 97.5° F.
When temperatures are cooler, we see an association with better FSH levels, better quality and quantity of cervical discharge, and better egg quality. All promising indicators for a fertile cycle.
As temperatures climb closer to 98° during the follicular phase, less cervical discharge is produced, elevations in FSH can be observed, and symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats will appear. All of these signal hormone imbalances and are problematic to fertility.
Issues in the Luteal Phase
After ovulation occurs (on or around cycle day 14), the luteal phase begins. Temperatures should 98.2° F or higher in the luteal phase—a whole degree higher than those in the follicular phase.
Temperatures above 98° indicate ideal progesterone levels. Progesterone is a key hormone for allowing implantation to occur in the uterus and for preventing early pregnancy loss. I have observed an extremely close association with low luteal phase temperatures and recurrent pregnancy loss.
In our practice, we observed a 40% miscarriage rate for women whose luteal temperatures were below 98° prior to conception, while those with luteal phase temperatures above 98° only experienced a 4% miscarriage rate.
Stop Tracking BBT And Start Taking Charge Of It
Here's some great news: your fertility is not a fixed point. Fertility can change over time and you're not stuck with a crummy BBT chart or a crummy, painful menstrual cycle.
Pay attention to the warning signs above as you track your BBT throughout the month. If you do notice any of these problematic temperature patterns pop up in your chart, working with an integrated system like Conceivable is a great, natural way to regulate your BBT and boost your fertility.
Knowing how to read your BBT chart for potential issues is a fantastic way to take charge of your reproductive health and conception. If you're still not sure what a healthy cycle looks like, here's a great graphic.
Like I said before, your fertility can change. First, you have to understand what the problems are, how they are related and then make a plan to fix them.
While I did this for my patients for 2 decades I have been working on a way to help more women and people with periods understand the underlying causes of their fertility problems. I am developing an assessment that helps me collect all the data in a super organized way so I can then give you your fertility score, and customize a program to help you improve your fertility month over month. This is precisely what I did for more than 10k patients but now it is about 1/100 the price of seeing me in my clinic.
If you would ike to learn more, check click here to meet your new AI personalized fertility coach, Kirsten AI. For the price of a pregnancy test, you can get her help to figure out the underlying issues why you are struggling to get or stay pregnant and she will help you create a highly personalized plan to repair them!
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Remember, there is hope.
Want to Start Improving Your Fertility?
Meet your new, 100% personalized, available 24/7 fertility coach, Kirsten AI. She will help you identify all of the underlying issues impacting your fertility, make a plan to fix them and support you day in and out on your journey to motherhood.