BBT stands for Basal Body Temperature. Basal body temperature is the lowest temperature that your body will have during the day. Basal body temperature is obtained, typically, the very first thing in the morning even before you get out of bed. In regard to fertility, charting your basal body temperature can help you to know when ovulation has occurred. Tracking your basal body temperature through several cycles can help you to know precisely when during your cycle you are going to ovulate, and can help you time your attempts to conceive appropriately.

Basal body temperature can be taken orally or rectally. Basal body temperature thermometers need to be capable of measuring body temperatures to an accuracy of one tenth of a degree. After ovulation, your basal body temperature will rise. The increase of progesterone in your system that occurs during ovulation causes your basal body temperature to rise between four tenths and six tenths of a degree. This can happen over the course of a day, or it may happen immediately.

Because basal body temperature tracking only tells you when ovulation has already occurred, it can be a bit imprecise as a tool to help with fertility. Just because you experienced an increase in basal body temperature on day 15 of your cycle during one month doesn’t mean that you will experience the same change on the same day the following month. This is why it is necessary to track your basal body temperature over several cycles. After several cycles, a fairly reliable pattern should emerge that can indicate when exactly it is during the month that you are going to be the most fertile.

Many women use basal body temperature along with other sorts of measurements to keep tabs on their fertility. For example, charting your cervical mucus can also tell you when you are ovulating. Some women use these methods along with fertility products like ovulation predictor kits, or saliva-based ovulation testers in order to maximize their chances of conception.

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