The basal temperature during pregnancy

Basal temperature during pregnancy is measured by many women. What does this parameter mean and what can be found by these measurements?

This “type” of temperature, as it can be called, is one of the classic and the oldest methods for determining ovulation and hormonal disorders in women. That is, the measurement is generally carried out by women planning a child and the ones who want to accelerate the onset of conception, predict the most favorable day for it. If there is no ovulation according to the BT schedule for several months in a row – it is an occasion to conduct gynecological and possibly endocrinological examinations.

Since the basal temperature during pregnancy before the delay usually rises to 37 degrees and higher, on the basis of you can suspect pregnancy even when it is too early to do tests – for about 3-5 days before the expected start of the delay. On the other hand, it is much more effective for this purpose to take a blood test for HCG. HCG begins to be produced after the implantation of a fertilized egg. That is approximately 7-10 days after sexual intercourse.

But let’s go back to the BT level. 37.0, 37.1 C is considered a normal basal temperature during pregnancy. This increase is due to the effects of the hormone progesterone – it is mainly responsible for the preservation and development of the embryo. With a shortage of the hormone a threat of miscarriage or spontaneous termination of pregnancy appears. That is why basal temperature of 36.6, 36.7, 36.8, 36.9 degrees during pregnancy many cause panic, because it is logical to assume that something is out of order.

What do the doctors say about it? Doctors of Soviet training, by which many doctors are still working in the Russian women’s clinics and hospitals, advise their patients (expectant mothers) to measure BT in the case if they have previously had miscarriages or have some reason to suspect a pathology (e.g., hCG growth below the normal level).

Modern doctors are of the opinion that the basal temperature during pregnancy cannot tell you about anything. There is a category of women who have a high risk of miscarriage, but for such women there is a special control. This control assumes holding transvaginal ultrasound and tracking the dynamics of the growth of hCG. But BT is unhelpful, because there is a great probability of errors, its accuracy depends on too many factors. In short it is better not to look up in the Internet for “basal temperature norm during pregnancy” and listen carefully to the tangible signals of your body and be sure to comply with all recommendations of your physician.

If you do not abandon the idea to know your BT, be sure to follow the rules that will help to minimize the error in the measurement. Thus, measurements are carried out only after a night’s sleep before you raise from the bed, rectally. You can use mercury or electronic thermometer. But the second one has more possible errors. The basal temperature during pregnancy is unhelpful at night, because after exercising it has the ability to increase. And do not forget about the factors that may also affect the result. These are different diseases, fever, sexual intercourse, intense excitement, and others.