Keys to Fertility Awareness and Conception
Your 'basal temperature' is the temperature of your body in a state of rest. Technically, your body's true basal body temperature occurs while you are sleeping, but many women measure their basal body temperature (BBT) upon waking and before any other activity has taken place. Since the value of tracking BBTs has more to do with variations in temperature than the actual temperatures themselves, this is still acceptable.
Many women practice a form of fertility awareness centered around their BBTs. By charting their morning BBT each day, they can establish and recognize the day of ovulation. Ovulation and the hormones associated with it tend to raise the BBT by one to one and a half degrees Fahrenheit (one-quarter to one-half degree Celsius). This spike in temperature is a sign that the body is fertile and ready to conceive, as the ovum will only survive for forty-eight hours at most.
Getting Results
Being aware of your body's natural fertility rhythms can be an invaluable aid in trying to conceive. Using a pregnancy test kit one to two weeks after ovulation can tell you whether or not your efforts were successful. Testing with a pregnancy test kit prior to the one-week mark can result in a false negative; always check the pregnancy test kit you plan to use for damage and expiration date, to prevent false positives. If you continue to track BBTs, know that eighteen days of consistently elevated temperatures is a strong indicator of pregnancy. It would be wise to have a pregnancy test kit or two on hand for when you need them.
The use of a pregnancy test kit is still the easiest, most accurate, and most convenient method. While a trip to the doctor could get you the same information, it's limited by the hospital's hours of operation and the doctor's availability. A good strategy while monitoring BBTs is to use an online pregnancy test to self-check symptoms; if that returns a possible positive result, test again between one and two weeks with a pregnancy test kit; if that returns a positive result, follow up with your doctor, who can run a more accurate pregnancy test kit and give you a definitive answer. Even then, there is still a margin of error - so don't give up if the pregnancy test kit comes back negative, and don't stop trying until you're sure!
Getting pregnant can take a long time, depending on biological and genetic factors. Sometimes it's a good idea to just forget about the ovulation chart and pregnancy test kit for a while, and focus on the love and intimacy you already enjoy in your relationship. One day, a pregnancy test kit will give you the news you've been waiting to hear, but until then, treasure what you already have.
