While waiting to test for pregnancy, it's natural to feel a mix of emotions: excitement, anxiety, hope, and impatience. If you are concerned about testing, we’re here to help you understand when you should test and how temperatures can help guide you to test at the right time.
We’ve broken down how you can use your basal body temperature chart to detect pregnancy:
- Your BBT temperatures will rise 1-2 days after ovulation. (From the time of your period to ovulation your temps will be in a lower range, after ovulation the hormone progesterone becomes dominant and increases your body temperature slightly).
- If you're pregnant, you'll notice that your temps stay elevated and don't drop off with menstruation.
- In the case of a successful pregnancy, temperatures will remain elevated beyond the next expected period. If you’ve been tracking for a couple of cycles you’ll have likely identified how many days it is from ovulation to your next period (your luteal phase).
- If your temps stay elevated beyond 16-18 days then you're probably pregnant.
We know how difficult it can be to wait for those 16-18 days of high temperatures, but if you can't wait until then to confirm pregnancy, then taking a home pregnancy test at 10+ days past ovulation may indicate a pregnancy.
In the meantime, we recommend not over-analyzing individual temperatures. Implantation dips and triphasic charts can happen in both pregnancy and non-pregnancy charts, so these are not reliable indicators of a possible pregnancy.
Here are some basic recommendations for how to use this waiting time:
- Acknowledge your feelings, and seek support from loved ones or online communities, such as our Facebook community.
- Take small steps to reduce stress, like deep breathing or gentle exercise.
- Prioritize your nutrition, When your body has the nutrients available that it needs to thrive, you are giving your future children the best start possible.
- Stay hydrated.
- Get plenty of rest.
- Incorporate some moderate exercise into your schedule.
Remember, regardless of the outcome, prioritizing your well-being is paramount during this emotional time.