The Balance of Hormones: What Does Charting Your Basal Body Temperature Tell Your Practitioner
You’ve started your fertility journey and realize there’s a slew of information, products, etc. All patients that have embarked in to the fertility world realize there’s so much more to getting pregnant than they thought imaginable. At the most basic level, there are specific pieces your practitioners need to know— are you menstruating regularly? Are you ovulating every cycle? Are you ovulating at the same time each cycle? All of these pieces give a you and your practitioner as to what’s happening with the balance of your hormones.
Often times, patients will use ovulation predictor kits or OPK tests to find that optimal time during their cycle of conceive. These are urine tests you can take around the approximate time you would ovulate to optimize predicting your most fertile time during your cycle. This style of testing can produce false positives or sometimes patients will find they never get a positive, despite having signs they did ovulate. It’s important to remember, these tests are meant to give you a rough time frame of your fertility window. Often times, patients will rely solely on OPK tests, however, Basal Body Temperature charting gives your practitioner so much information about what’s happening with the balance of your hormones.
To further confirm your fertile window, Basal Body Temperature, or BBT charting, is another way to for us to understand the balance of your hormones and your cycle. BBT charting involves waking each morning to take your temperature before getting out of bed. There are thermometers that go to 2 decimal places that are used to track BBT to get a very specific temperature reading. There are free apps galore used to track BBT or it can always be done on a paper chart. There are specific requirements for charting your BBT so please be aware of the restrictions.
A typical BBT chart starts with Day 1 of your period with lower temperatures ranging from approximately 97-98 degrees. Western medicine calls this the estrogen phase of the cycle. Traditional Chinese Medicine calls this the yin and blood phase of the cycle. After an ovulation has occurred there will be a spike in temperature caused by a dip in estradiol and a surge of luteinizing hormone, follicular stimulating hormone and progesterone. Typically, anything greater than .5 degrees or higher signifies that ovulation has occurred. TCM attributes this to the rise in yang energy and an increase of qi. During the second half of your cycle, your temperature will be around the high 97 degrees to low 98 degrees. This higher temperature should maintain throughout the second part of the cycle. When your period comes round again, there will typically be a slight dip in the BBT the day before the period is about to begin. If you are pregnant, the temperature will maintain the higher temperatures due to the influx of pregnancy hormones.
BBT charting serves many purposes. Your TCM practitioner uses the BBT to adjust your acupuncture treatment and herbal regimen based on trends and changes observed in your chart.
These are some typical patterns that can happen in a cycle and the typical TCM pattern that correlates:
Typical Imbalances of Menstrual Cycle
TCM Pattern
Short follicular (Yin) phase: Yin or blood deficiency
Short or Low Temp Luteal phase: Yang deficiency
Short cycle length: Qi and/or blood deficiency
Long cycle length: Qi or blood deficiency, heart qi blockage, liver qi stagnation
Jagged cycle or yo-yo-ing cycle: Indicates heat or inflammation in your system
Short bleeding time: Qi and/or Blood deficiency
Long bleeding time: Qi and/or blood deficiency, Heat in the Blood
Heavy bleeding: Heat in the blood
All of these patterns, can be addressed using acupuncture and herbs to regulate your cycle. By watching your BBT chart regularly, we can identify places where your cycle could use further support to optimize your fertility. Ask your practitioner today on help getting started!