BBT ladies -- how would you chart this?

[Anonymous]

So I normally wake up between 6:30 and 7 and take my BBT. This morning DS got up at 4am. I took my temp knowing I wouldn't be asleep for long enough to take it again at my normal time. It was 98.5. I know they say that temps vary by about .1 per hour (lower earlier, higher later). So my question is, do I add the .3 to my 98.5 as if I'd taken it at 7am? Of course today was the day I was supposed to ovulate and if I add the .3 it would be a clear ovulation pattern. At 98.5 it's iffy.

What do you ladies think?

[Anonymous]

I am confused by this too. This is my first month charting, and I woke up at 4:30 to pee today, and I usually take my temp at 6:30.... I still went with my 6:30 because I manged to fall heavily asleep again.

Sorry I don't have an answer.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I think I found my own answer. This is from another forum, but originally from Fertility Friend:

When I wake up at a different time, should I adjust my temperature?

We are often asked whether temperatures should be "adjusted" when not taken exactly at the same time. Some simple formulas are sometimes applied to adjust for differences in waking time. We are often asked whether this is accurate or not and if it is worth correcting the chart.

We recommend against adjusting temperatures as in general the resulting temperature, though it may be more pleasing, is not more accurate. The reasoning behind our recommendation is based on the fact that the Basal Body Temperature variation with time is dependent on your own unique metabolism. While most women see a difference, some women do not see much dependence of the BBT with time and can live with a variation in time without masking their pattern. For many others even a 10-20 minute difference will have strong effects on their charts. Similarly, some women see an increase of their BBT with time while others may actually see a decrease. From the diversity of the charts that we have seen, it is quite clear that no simple generic formulas will be able to compensate for time differences.

Our advice is to use an alarm clock if necessary to try to keep the time as constant as possible. If you have an occasional waking time difference, just record the time but leave the data as measured and make a note if there are unusual circumstances. In most cases our software should be able to see your ovulation pattern despite a few inaccurate data points.

If you have inaccurate data points that are causing you to have an invalid or confusing interpretation, please ask for support to help evaluate your chart.

[Anonymous]

I'm probably not doing this right, but I just use the "rule of thumb" rule and ignore those days. My sleeping patterns have been out of whack this week, but I know I'm not due to ovulate for a few days, so I'm not too worried about it.

[Anonymous]

OP here --PP-- I keep fiddling with the temp on Fertility Friend. If I chart the temp I had at 4am then I ovulated on day 14, if I put in the "adjusted temp" then I ovulated on day 15. It's so frustrating that waking up early one day makes that much difference! In the end it doesn't matter anyway since we only BD every other day through my whole fertile window anyway, so we'll see.
Good luck to you!