Does anyone here temp? I just started temping this month (I have found in the last six months that I have irregular cycles…the shortest has been 33 days, longest was 52) because dealing with TTC and not knowing what is going on with my body has been frustrating! I have a favor to ask of those who temp…would you mind looking at my chart to tell me whether or not you think I ovulated? My husband was only home for ten days before he deployed again and so I’m staying hopeful that one of the spikes in my chart was indeed ovulation, but I’m not sure and I’m as impatient as ever! I know that it is likely that the timing didn’t work out, but of course I would be thrilled if it did. Either way, I will know in the next couple of weeks, assuming my period isn’t incredibly late.
Thanks all!
PS: if you wouldn’t mind giving me your opinion, I will message the chart to you directly…I tried uploading it but for some reason it gave me an error message. Meh.
I’m not an expert but I do temp! I’m in a really helpful Fertility awareness method group on facebook, and another that is specifically for TTC if you would be interested in sharing your chart there. I can look but I don’t have a ton of experience!
I temp. I found fertility friend really useful for learning the ropes when I was starting out as they have lots of tutorial. Also, FF will identify ovulation for you based on sustained higher temps.
I used to temp, but I just never could get into it, I often forgot and then don’t do it at the same time every morning like you should. I also have irregular cycles, which makes it trickier. I have switched to OPKs after a recommendation from my doctor since with irregular cycles, you never will know when you ovulate or in some cases, if you ovulate at all! If you have a history of irregular cycles, I would also talk to your doctor to see if something else is up.
@shalexis - thank you for taking a look at my chart! I am one of those odd ducks who does not have any social media, so unfortunately I cannot take advantage of those Facebook groups. PS: congrats on your pregnancy!
@lilhan - I use FF as well, but so far the app has not calculated a coverline. While I do have six lower temps followed by 6 higher temps I think the oscillations in temp during my follicular phase prior to my potential ovulation might be throwing the analysis off. As this is my first month temping, it could very well be operator interpretation error on my part. Or I could have not ovulated at all this month…ugh.
@moondreams - That’s so funny you say that about OPKs versus temping…I’m completely the opposite! I don’t have the patience to wait the full 5 minutes to interpret the OPKs and squint at those darn lines, but temping every morning has been really easy. My wake up alarm is at the same time every day and that simplifies things. I have been off BC since last September, and since that time the majority of my cycles have been 33-38 days, so long but still regular overall, although the last two cycles were 52 then 44…which I think quite possibly could have been due to miscarriage and my cycle getting back on track. I decided that if I continue to have extended cycles longer than 38 days for the next few months I will definitely make an appt with my nurse midwife to check in and be sure that I don’t have anything else going on physiologically. Between my husband’s schedule and an unexpected death in our extended family I have definitely felt a decent bit of stress the last few months as well. The irregularity is definitely on my radar and I’m really hoping it was just an aberration!
You can always switch to digital OPKs, more expensive, the results are a clear YES or No, or a smiley and a frowny face depending on the brand you get.
If you are temping, it should be pretty obvious when you ovulate, because the spike will be pretty noticeable, at least it was for me or I just kind of assumed, but that was awhile ago when I had taken a NFP course and they helped me read my charts. After that I kind of kept up with it up until last year, but I found getting up at the same time and remembering too difficult, my dots were kind of crazy, plus I got sick a few times and the colds messed with my temping… I just wasn’t very strict with it, I guess I just got lazy over time, haha!
The 5 minute wait for the OPKs is easier for me since I just do the test, hop in the shower, hop out and read my lines. It fit into my morning routine better. Kind of wish I had just gone with the OPKs in the first place, but was hoping we would get pregnant without them…
The other downside is with temping, you don’t know you ovulate until after you temp, the nice thing with OPKs is they give you a heads up (the line darkens), so you know the correct time you should have sex. So if your cycles are irregular, temping might not help since you might ovulate at different times. Temping works great for regular cycles since once you know when you ovulate, you can predict it every month, but for me, my doctor said it might not help since I’m going to ovulate differently each cycle.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is your vaginal mucus. When it’s clear and stretchy like egg whites, you are ovulating. If it’s wet/damp or creamy/white, you are about to ovulate. If you are completely dry, then you aren’t ovulating (but in some cases you may never get much mucus and might have to actually touch your cervix to check the status of it)
@moondreams - thanks for your response! I have tried OPKs, but I’m definitely not consistent enough to make them worth it thus far. I think it is so interesting how different schedules allow for different methods (I hadn’t considered reading the OPKs after a shower…that’s a good idea! Although I take evening showers so it probably wouldn’t work for me.). I definitely agree about the downsides of temping not being able to predict ovulation…this is my first month temping and unfortunately I am still at the bottom of the learning curve. I manually marked what I think was my ovulation in the FF app and was able to upload it…what do you think?
Actually with OPKs, you can take them at anytime during the day! (which is awesome because even I forget sometimes) It’s just the pregnancy test that you have to take first thing in the morning.
From your chart, it looks like you have the correct day marked. The only other possible one would be day 17, but I would probably go with day 19, since your temperatures continued to rise after that point.
I think fertility friend needs you to chart a few cycles before it will do the marking for you, but I could be wrong, it’s been awhile since I used that app. I switched to Ovia awhile back, which is so much easier to read imo.
@moondreams - thank you for your input! I am cautiously optimistic that maybe, just maybe the timing lined up this time. That definitely doesn’t mean I’m pregnant (although I’m hopeful of course!) but it is nice to know that I likely ovulated. I didn’t realize you could take OPKs any time of the day…that’s interesting and good to know. Maybe I will give them a whirl on the next cycle and see what happens. I should be able to test in about a week…I will keep you posted!