BBT - can I test at another time of day? (TTC)

[CC81]

I'm new to BBT testing and would be grateful for some advice. I started about 5 days ago.

I do it when I wake, before I get out of bed, as I know that's supposed to be the most 'rested' time (and thus lowest temp, as not raised by activity?).

HOWEVER, I often feel really hot when I wake up! Possibly due to heart rate from weird dreams?

I've tried testing at other times of day and found that my temp is lower - so is that my genuine 'basal' temperature?

I'm on day 4 of my period (it's nearly over). At the start my temp was around 36.4, but in the last two days it's been 36.69 and 36.78 on waking, then closer to 36.4 again later in the day.

I thought temp was supposed to be lower during a period, so I'm wondering if I've got off to a bad start? I don't want my BBT chart to be misleading, especially by the time I reach ovulation (as I'm doing it to track whether ovulation happens).

You need to measure bbt after a minimum of 3 hours sleep. There is a book. Taking charge of your fertility that is really helpful in explaining it all - I got my copy on amazon for a couple of pounds - definitely worth it.

As you're still early into doing it, just see these next couple of cycles as a test to try and understand your body, find out your ovulation day and luteal phase. 5 days isn't really long enough to draw any conclusions.

Is your thermometer to 2 decimal places? I enter my data into fertility friend which is basic but easy to read.

@VenusStarr - Thanks - I think that could be the problem, as the last two days I've woken briefly in the early hours (before waking up properly a bit later). Don't think I can do much about that! :/

Yeah, thermometer has two decimal places; and I have an app which produces a chart.

I guess I'm concerned that if my temp is always high when I wake up, I won't detect the change around ovulation :/

@VenusStarr - Thanks - I think that could be the problem, as the last two days I've woken briefly in the early hours (before waking up properly a bit later). Don't think I can do much about that! :/

Yeah, thermometer has two decimal places; and I have an app which produces a chart.

I guess I'm concerned that if my temp is always high when I wake up, I won't detect the change around ovulation :/

@CC81 I wouldn't worry too much about briefly waking in the night. I sometimes wake up and need the toilet, so I'll check the time and either do it then if it's close to my usual time or if it's super early I'll just go to the toilet and go back to bed to sleep until my usual time to get the 3 hours.

It could be that your core temp is naturally higher. Mine was 35.5/6 pre ov then raised when I first started. I've have a few miscarriages and now it's more like 36.2 pre ovulation.

Keep going and hopefully you'll see a pattern x

When you first start temping it's really tempting to see outliers and think "oh, something's happening/going wrong", but with BBTs it's all about the trends. With so few readings its hard to extrapolate out whats happening. I still get random days that are spikes, then it settles out. My CD1 is also usually warmer as I'm moving out of follicular phase. Once you've got more readings it'll be easier to see what's actually happening.

Thanks @VenusStarr and @PlanBea :)

My aim was to just record everything and then analyse afterwards, but I've panicked in case I'm doing it wrong!

I thought 'basal' would be the lowest temp of the day (resting level), but first-thing in the morning seems to be a weirdly hot time for me at present (then I cool down later in the day).

It'll be interesting to see what happens post-period...

This is my progress so far 😆

This is my progress so far 😆