Leta3 says:
I took mine vaginally the first cycle, this cycle I switched to orally, my temps are eratic no matter
which way I take them. I switched to orally taking them when my waking temps were so high. They
ranged from 98.4 - 98.6. That made my cover-line 98.7. I thought with the high waking temps that
I had a thyroid problem. Doctor even did some blood work. It was just that I didn't know what a
big difference it was between the 2. Taking my temps orally they range from 97.4 to 97.9 post
Ovulation. Just wanted to let you know so that if you do, dont be surprised if they are high
EileenB says:
I've done both. I switched to vaginally about 3 cycles ago. I prefer it, first of all because I have a
tendency to sleep with my mouth open, which ruins the accuracy of an oral reading right after you
wake up (how do you know if your mouth was open or closed if you were asleep?). Secondly, I
saw that my temps tended to CREEP up orally, but vaginally I get a consistently quick reading,
usually in about 40 seconds. Plus, you can fall asleep without having the thermometer drop out of
your mouth! Much more comfortable too.
Laura (aka LkGls) says:
When charting your temps, after your temp spike,you draw a "coverline" over the highest of the last
6 day temps. Your spike and all suceeding temps (until day or 2 before AF) should be above this
line. (Called bi-phasic temps . . . all before O should be below the coverline and all after should be
above).
Heather (aka mabriam) explains it more with an example:
Let's say you have these temps:
Day
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14 Ovulation
15
16
17
Temp
97.3
97.2
97.4
97.2
97.4
97.3
97.1
97.6
97.8
98.0
97.9
Okay, you can clearly see the .5 degree jump on day 14, indicating ovulation. To get your coverline, you look at the 6 temps previous to O and add .1 degree to the highest one. In this case, the highest one is 97.4, so the coverline is 97.5. All clear?
dorothym says:
The Art of Natural Family Planning says that if your temp stays up for 21 days (NOT 18) you have
a 99% certainty of pregnancy. Another way to figure it out is to add 7 days to your normal luteal
phase. Mine is 16 days, so I would need to have 23 days of high temps to be sure.
MFS also states:
I've had triphasic temps and not been pregnant, and when I did get pregnant, I did not have
triphasic temps.
Scoon did a survey on people who had triphasic temps but weren't PG, here is her summary:
I am afraid the survey is less definitive than I had hoped. Several people who had triphasic temps did
report other signs that indicated they had probably had a fertilized egg that had either failed to implant or
failed shortly after implantation. If you have triphazic temps and also either a faintly positive test at some
point or a late AF or an unusually bad AF I think there is a very good chance that what happened is that
there was a fertilized egg that for some reason didn't make it. The good news is that people who go
through this, disappointing as it is, seem to have a higher than average success rate the next month.
Then there are at least a few people who really do go triphasic every month and show no other signs of being PG.
Then there are a few people who maybe didn't really go triphasic. Temps often have a certain amount of scatter, especially if taken orally, and this can confuse the issue. There needs to be a definition of triphasic. To get the best definition one would have to do a lot of research. As a starting point, I suggest having to have at least 4 temps at the initial post-ovulation level, followed by at least 6 temps at a level that is at least 0.3 degrees F higher than the previous level.
Finally, mine own experience. I had clearly triphasic temps that fit the above definition. AF was 3 days late. I had one faint positive HPT. I also had a blood test done at 13 dpo. It was barely positive, but so low they didn't think it would last. (By the time I got the results I could have told them that.) So, it looks like in my case I was PG for a little while, probably it never implanted. However, the bad news is that I insisted on a progesterone test at the same time, which came out VERY low. This may be the reason implantation failed. So, what does this mean for everybody else? If you have been trying for more than 6 months and have had one or more months of triphasic temps and have not gotten PG, you might want to consider getting progesterone testing done. It is pretty easy to do and could make you quest shorter.
To convert C to F do (C = the temp in Celsius)
9 * C / 5 + 32
Example: 9 * 36.1 / 5 + 32= 96.98
Basic rule of thumb seems to be: 0.1 degrees Celsius equals 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.1 Fahrenheit is approx. 0.055 Celsius.
For everyone who does not like to do the maths themselves, here comes a little table:
C ---> F F ---> C 35,0 95,00 95,0 35,00 35,5 95,90 95,5 35,28 36,0 96,80 96,0 35,56 36,1 96,98 96,1 35,61 36,2 97,16 96,2 35,67 36,3 97,34 96,3 35,72 36,4 97,52 96,4 35,78 36,5 97,70 96,5 35,83 36,6 97,88 96,6 35,89 36,7 98,06 96,7 35,94 36,8 98,24 96,8 36,00 36,9 98,42 96,9 36,06 37,0 98,60 97,0 36,11 37,1 98,78 97,1 36,17 37,2 98,96 97,2 36,22 37,3 99,14 97,3 36,28 37,4 99,32 97,4 36,33 37,5 99,50 97,5 36,39 37,6 99,68 97,6 36,44 37,7 99,86 97,7 36,50 37,8 100,04 97,8 36,56 37,9 100,22 97,9 36,61 38,0 100,40 98,0 36,67 38,1 100,58 98,1 36,72 38,2 100,76 98,2 36,78 38,3 100,94 98,3 36,83 38,4 101,12 98,4 36,89 38,5 101,30 98,5 36,94 98,6 37,00 98,7 37,06 98,8 37,11 98,9 37,17 99,0 37,22 99,1 37,28 99,2 37,33 99,3 37,39 99,4 37,44 99,5 37,50 99,6 37,56 99,7 37,61 99,8 37,67 99,9 37,72 100,0 37,78 100,1 37,83 100,2 37,89 100,3 37,94 100,4 38,00 100,5 38,06 100,6 38,11 100,7 38,17 100,8 38,22 100,9 38,28 101,0 38,33 101,1 38,39 101,2 38,44 101,3 38,50
Cat also expresses this important point:
Although TCOYF cites 18 DPO for pregnancy, all my NFP literature uses a 21 DPO rule. I would ask you to include it in the
faq to help calm fears that there is something wrong when 18 dpo comes and goes with a negative test.