BBT help

[thislittlebird]

Hi, I’m fairly new to the whole charting thing (and to mn) but have been trying off and on for over a year. Had to take a break due to sickness and then another break to get married between lockdowns.

In July and August I tried temping and I was not great at it but managed a couple of months. I’ve attached some chart images and I’m hoping someone more experienced at this than me could advise what you think of these because FF (charts attached) and Flo (will post in reply) are telling me different ovulation dates but I’m not knowledgable enough to know which to trust more.

July 18 cycle:
FF = CD16
Flo = CD19

August 16 cycle:
FF = CD18
Flo = CD12 (I’m assuming it’s not 12 and this is just a temp error as this seems a bit early for a 29 day cycle with EWCM on day 13)

I only seem to get EWCM for one of two days but based on this I’m wondering if I ovulate 4-6 days after I get that which I don’t think I’d really considered before. Planning to pay more attention to all of this from my next cycle, will probably try charting again and set an alarm to do it.

Flo charts attached.

Hello! Both your FF charts have dotted crosshairs which means FF itself isn't sure about your OD. Your August chart is pretty unreliable as well as you've not temped at the same time each day, as indicated by the little triangles showing that your temp is either lower or higher than it would have been had you temped the same time each day.

Having said that - the rule of thumb is that OD is confirmed once you have three temps in a row consistently higher than the previous six. For both your FF charts I'd say that's CD18? That would be my take on it anyway!

Ahhhh ok, I didn’t realise that, that’s very helpful @Juno231!

I didn’t realise the triangles meant that either. Hmmm so definitely worth trying again next cycle with an alarm. Honestly didn’t love the whole waking up at the same time thing (never have loved routine lol) and just kind of thought I’d not bother picking it up again because it was probably not for me. BUT it is useful even on these messy charts because it didn’t really register with me at the time (probably because I didn’t do it long enough or accurately enough to see a pattern) that the ovulation date would be so many days after my usual one day of EWCM. This month I also got a mild ovulation migraine (a few days after EWCM and a couple of days of mittelschmerz) which happens sometimes, but it led me down this path of wondering whether it’s the beginning/middle/end of ovulation and then I referred back to the old charts.

Thank you for that insight, end of CD17 and beginning of CD18 is also when I got the ovulation migraine this month so maybe I can work that out and detect a pattern if I pick it up again.

@thislittlebird for what it's worth - my EWCM seems to start 5ish days before ovulation day so I almost just view it as the start of my fertile week rather than a sign of it being ovulation day itself.

As long as your charts show some kind of temp shift /pattern I don't think you have to be crazy religious about it - but your Aug one was particularly bad lol! For the odd day where you wake up particularly out of sync I'd perhaps suggest you look up a bbt temp adjuster? They're not advised to be used regularly but are certainly helpful - especially if it's for key temps you think might be skewing your data.

I love bbt charts (although I do prefer FF ones) so feel free to give me a shout any time if you need it :)

Honestly the EWCM thing has also been a revelation to me recently @Juno231 because although I am obviously aware of what it is I read a book that said most women get 5 days which blew my mind a bit and made me pay more attention to it all. I guess I can view my slightly disappointing one day as near the start then, roughly anyway. Previously I was probably assuming that was a couple of days before ovulation but it makes sense having read all of this recently that it’s longer.

Lol I know, I was almost too embarrassed to post it but thought it might be vaguely useful to a better trained eye! In July I was trying and by August I was very much over it, I’m not great at it all but I will give is another go again later this month.

Thank you, I will bear that in mind! I was logging in Flo originally and then retroactively entered my dates into FF because I’d seen it was really popular but the website was a little confusing, maybe I’ll make the effort to read more about it too.

@thislittlebird I use the FF app which I'd say is relatively intuitive - maybe that'll help?

Yeah it’s ok, I have that now, back then I may not have, can’t recall, but I got it at some point and entered the data in because I thought it was a good plan (since everyone online rates FF well).