Fertility Education Trust

guidelines to charting your fertility cycle, page 5 of 26

1. The Temperature Method - Disturbed Readings:

disturbed temperature readings

The waking temperature is affected by many things. False rises and dips can be caused by

  1. taking it at different times; being ill, having a fever, a migraine etc.
  2. events the night before - drinking alcohol, heavy late night meal, disturbed night’s sleep

how to deal with disturbed readings

A disturbance on the graph is accompanied below by its cause - in this example the letter 'A' for alcohol.

The most common factors are listed at the bottom of the temperature chart.

New thermometer (NT), alcohol (A), Late (L), early (E), disturbed night (D), unwell (U), travel (T), holidays(H), cystitis (C), thrush (Th),medicines (M)

Read the list and mark any disturbances, which may have altered a temperature reading, by putting the letter code given e.g. A for alcohol, L for taken late, etc. in the last row of squares of the Temperature Chart.

Above, the reading of Day 9 is raised because of alcohol consumed the evening before. So it is circled to highlight it, labelled with A for Alcohol and discounted when interpreting the chart. It is vital that “disturbed” readings are recognised to be able to interpret a chart accurately.

© 2007 Fertility Education Trust