Basal body temperature can give us a glimpse into what your hormones are up to throughout the cycle, and the regularity of your cycle. Today I want to talk about a specific aspect of your cycle we can gauge through a BBT chart, and can have a direct impact on your fertility – the length of your luteal phase.
The luteal phase is the second half of your cycle – after ovulation until menses. An optimal luteal phase length (to allow adequate time for implantation to occur) is between 12-14 days. Shorter than that is where we can begin to run into some fertility problems.
The incidence of a luteal phase deficiency in infertile women ranges from 30-40%. That number may seem high, but if a short luteal phase is the only contributing factor to infertility, a progesterone prescription may be a safe and effective solution.
If conception is in the future for you, I encourage you to start get familiar with your cycle, track it, and assess luteal phase length (from the time you see a spike in temperature until menses). That way you can know whether or not your luteal phase length may be a factor in conception.
This figure is my favourite! It lines up what your hormones, uterus, follicles/eggs are doing in relation to your BBT and rough cycle length!
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