Charting Basics

Charting is actually a very simple thing to do, only takes a few quick seconds in the morning and some observations of symptoms throughout the day.

To start charting you will need a Basal Body Thermometer, not your average thermometer you have around the house. It has to be a Basal thermometer. To get your accurate Basal Body Temp (BBT) you will need at least 3 hours uninterrupted sleep. Before getting out of bed, taking a drink, anything, take your temp. You an either use oral or vaginal temps. (I do both) The reason a person might check theirs vaginally vs orally, is if that person was an open mouth sleeper. Open mouth sleeping could effect your temps. So a vaginal temp would be more accurate. Take your temp and record it and your wake up time.

Over time you will see a pattern with your temps. Before O, your temps will stay low, they might see saw up and down or they might just stay stable. Each person's temps will be different and they can even vary from cycle to cycle for the same woman. Usually halfway into the cycle, the temps will rise and stay elevated for about 2 weeks. The day before the temp rise would be Ovulation. Usually there are additional signs that your body gives that correlate with ovulation. Egg white consistency cervical fluid, the cervix will be open, very high and soft. All of these symptoms can also be charted so that the exact day of ovulation can be pinpointed. By the time you see a shift in temps, Ovulation has already occurred, so it is important to avoid or continue having sex, if you are trying for or avoiding a pregnancy.

There are many charting websites out there that can be helpful when charting BBT's. Most will even help pinpoint ovulation. This kind of takes the guess work out of trying to find out when you ovulate. Some are better then others, but mostly is a preference per person.

Here are links to ones I have come across during my journey:

FertilityFriend.com (FF) ~ Has a basic membership that is free but doesn't come with all the perks of being able to get support on the support groups (a huge perk when TTC) and many of the extra features that Fertilityfriend.com has to offer. I personally use the free version, although I do not like it, and find that it is not all that accurate in it's first prediction of O and coverline. By the time I am due to see AF (aunt flow) is when it actually corrects itself. Go figure.

Ovusoft.com ~ I LOVE this software!!! This comes in software format and now a free online version is available on its site. I don't have any experience in the online version, but only have great to say about the software. It was a one time fee, (I think of $35) and it is yours forever. Unlike FF, in which you have to pay monthly/yearly membership fees to get all the perks. You also can get support on Ovusoft's website, although right now they have gone through some changes and is still dealing with the bugs.

Mymonthlycycle.com ~ I never cared for this one as entering in temps was a multi click process and if you wanted to see your chart, you had to pay a fee, similar to FF.

Femilia.com (formerly known as Mycycle.com) ~ This one was alright, another one that is multi clicks to input temps, but it worked nonetheless. It does not interpret your chart based on your BBT temps, so you need to be more experienced in chart interpreting to know what you are looking at and for.

There are many more out there but these are the ones I have experience with.