Health & Medical Women's Health

Natural Family Planning

If you are interested in natural family planning, you may have heard about basal body temperature.
Basal body temperature refers to your body's temperature when it is at a resting state.
Therefore, if you plan to use this method, you need to take your temperature before you get out of bed in the morning.
Tracking your basal body temperature is a fairly easy and inexpensive way of predicting when you will ovulate.
You can use your best prediction if you are trying to get pregnant or if you are trying to avoid pregnancy.
The first step is to purchase a special basal body temperature thermometer.
This thermometer measures to a tenth of a degree, so it is more accurate than a standard thermometer.
Your body temperature changes with your hormone fluctuations after you ovulate.
The changes are very slight and need to be monitored closely, every day for several months.
Typically, your body temperature will drop very slightly the day before you ovulate.
The day after you ovulate, your temperature will rise and stay higher for about five days.
Every woman is different, so you will need to keep very accurate records in order to use this method.
Most women will only experience one or two-tenths of a degree drop in their temperature before ovulation.
After ovulation, some women will experience a full degree rise in temperature, while others only see about four-tenths of a degree rise.
By tracking your basal body temperature, you can very closely monitor when your body ovulates.
Some women ovulate as often as every twenty days while others can have a much longer cycle.
If your cycle fluctuates at all due to stress, diet, weight gain or loss, or medication, then your estimation of when you ovulate can be way off.
Use this method wisely.
If you are using it to avoid pregnancy, you may not be very successful.
Your egg can survive in a fertile state for up to twenty four hours after ovulation.
You will need to abstain from sexual activity for a few days after ovulation to be fairly safe.
If you are trying to get pregnant, this method can be very effective for predicting ovulation.
You will need to have sexual intercourse for approximately five days before ovulation and also on your ovulation day.
This greatly increases your chances of conception.
It may take you a couple of months to have a good estimation of when you ovulate.
If you are looking for a Round Rock OBGYN in Texas, consider Heart of Texas Women's Center for all of your natural family planning needs.


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