Why Tracking BBT is a Game-Changer for Understanding Hormones 🔥
If you're looking to understand your cycles better, boost your chances of conception, or uncover underlying health issues... BBT might be your new best friend.
What is BBT?
Basal Body Temperature is your body's resting temperature, taken first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. After ovulation, progesterone causes your BBT to rise and stay elevated until your next period (or pregnancy!).
Why track it?
💡 Confirm ovulation:
BBT helps confirm after ovulation has occurred by spotting a sustained thermal shift. This is especially helpful if you're trying to conceive, coming off birth control and want to understand your hormones better, have PMOS, have irregular cycles, or simply want to know whether you're ovulating consistently. PLEASE KNOW that even if you are having regular cycles DOES NOT mean you are ovulating! You can have “anovulatory cycles” where you bleed each month because your hormones are shifting enough to build a lining and trigger the shedding on your period, but you don’t actually ovulate.
📅 Predict your next period:
Once you know your luteal phase length (the phase after ovulation), you can better predict your next cycle, even if your periods are irregular. Rather than guessing when your next period might arrive, you can make a much more educated estimate based on when ovulation occurred. This is because your luteal phase generally tends to stay the same length month to month, even if the full length of your cycle varies.
👶 Support TTC:
If you're trying to conceive, knowing whether and when you ovulate is critical. BBT can also help identify a short luteal phase (< 10 days), which may make conception more challenging. Having this information allows you to investigate potential root causes and determine whether additional support may be needed.
📊 Evaluate cycle health over time:
One month of data can be helpful, but several months of BBT tracking can reveal patterns. Are you ovulating later than expected? Is your luteal phase changing? Are your temperatures becoming more stable? These trends can provide valuable clues about how your body is responding to nutrition, stress, sleep, exercise, and other lifestyle factors.
⚠️ Spot possible concerns:
While BBT cannot diagnose medical conditions, it can sometimes point toward areas worth investigating. Regularly low temperatures (<97.4°F) may be associated with thyroid dysfunction, inadequate calorie intake, nutrient deficiencies, or other factors that deserve a closer look.
Pro tips for tracking:
Use a thermometer that reads to two decimal points
Take your temperature before moving, talking, drinking water, or getting out of bed
Try to take it at the same time each day
Consider a wearable if your schedule is unpredictable (hello night shifts or toddlers!) OR you are just not good at remembering to use a thermometer every morning! Devices like the Oura ring or TempDrop can be used for this. I’ve been using TempDrop consistently and I LOVE it! It’s a wearable device that you put on your arm every night and sync to your phone in the morning to get your temperature. This is slightly different than measuring BBT with an oral thermometer, but can still be used for the same purposes listed above. Use this link for a discount, I promise you won’t regret it! All of my clients that switch to this are SO glad they did.
Below is a sample of temperature tracking using TempDrop up until cycle day 21, where you can see the very obvious sustained thermal shift that happens 3 days after ovulation.
There are A LOT of ins and outs with tracking BBT beyond these tips, so I provide educational materials to my clients to guide them in getting the most accurate information from tracking.
Apps to try:
📱 Read Your Body (paid, but my fave!)
📱 Kindara (free)
BBT is a simple and super insightful tool to help you tune into your body’s signals and make confident, informed decisions for your health. This is something I'm frequently reviewing with my clients who track BBT. The ongoing data can help us identify patterns in their cycles that we can work on, and any potential underlying issues!
👉 Ready to get clarity on your cycle and feel more in control of your hormones? Work with me 1:1. I’ll help you interpret your temps and tailor your nutrition to what your body actually needs.