Acupuncture for Fertility and Basal Body Temperature (BBT) charting
Helping women and couples get pregnant, have strong pregnancies and deliver healthy babies is a great passion of mine, and very rewarding as a practitioner.
Chinese herbal Medicine and acupuncture has so much to offer to help this process. One of the main ways that it helps is by balancing out the body to address what the causes of infertility may be.
This can be diagnosed through taking the pulse, looking at the tongue and investigating menstrual history etc. But the closest most accurate way to see what is happening internally at each stage of a woman’s cycle is to see her Basal Body Temperature (BBT) charts.
BBT charts show us way more about fertility than just when a woman is ovulating. It can tell us about the length, and health, of each stage and hormonal process of the cycle.
This includes how long the follicular phase is – the time from the first day of the period, until the day of ovulation – which will show us if there is adequate time to develop a healthy endometrial lining for implantation, and a healthy follicle.
If this part of the cycle is too long and ovulation is delayed, we will need to address this and regulate the cycle. If it is too short, there may not be adequate time to mature the egg and follicle.
If the temperature is low in this phase of the cycle we may need to increase the temperature through moxibustion, warming herbs, or address underlying reasons for this. If the temperature is too high in this phase it might be contributing to less cervical mucous (important for conception), or a lining that is too thin or dry.
Ovulation is the next phase, and usually we see this as a spike in temperature as progesterone rises. Ovulation, or around 2-3 days before ovulation, is when a woman is most fertile, so it is important for us to see exactly when this is happening in the cycle, so that intercourse can happen at the right time! Ovulation day varies from woman to woman.
We also want to see this rise in temperature be sustained in the next part of the cycle – the luteal phase. In Chinese Medicine this is kidney yang, in western terminology its closely related to the effects of progesterone on warming the body and holding the pregnancy. If we see this temperature drop, it can mean menstruation has began again, but differing lengths here can indicate different pathology and we then address these accordingly.
There are many variations in woman’s charts. Every piece of information is crucial in working out what is happening, so we can diagnose where and what is holding a couple up from getting pregnant, and get very specific with our treatment.
So….how do you make your own BBT charts?
Basically you take your temperature first thing in the morning before any other activity.
As soon as you wake you take your temperature (a simple thermometer in the same side of the mouth each morning is best) and then record the result in your app. I like Fertility Friend, it is free, easy to use, and read.
You need to make sure you do this around the same time each day, before any movement, drinks or food, as soon as you wake. You also need to make sure you have had at least 3 hours of unbroken sleep before hand.
It is also important to note down other things of importance during your cycle. This includes the
days you see your cervical mucous change (contact me for more information on this)
the days you have sex
any days you have had alcohol the night before (this may change your basal temperature)
any breast changes
the days you bleed and how heavy the flow is, if there are any clots etc.
There are areas for these to be logged into the app so they appear on each months chart.
Finally, one of the most important aspects in healthy fertility is reducing stress!
So try to find an experienced fertility Acupuncturist/Chinese Doctor, so they can interpret these charts for you, so you don’t need to worry or stress. While they are working out exactly what’s happening for you and treating that, they can also reduce your stress through relaxing acupuncture. All you need to do is chart your temperature, have sex at the right time, and eat well (that's for another blog!).
If you have any questions about BBT charting or how Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help with natural or IVF facilitated fertility, please reach out to me at my Coburg acupuncture clinic, Melbourne. I love to make seemingly complicated things simpler and stress free, and more than anything I love helping start and/or grow families. #best_job_ever