Discovering Infertility Through Charting
by Lori Ramsey

I highly recommend charting your fertility signs and symptoms if you are trying to conceive. Not only will it help in pinpointing ovulation but it will help you to discover any infertility problems you may have. This is especially true if you've been trying for six month to one year. Taking your filled-out charts to your physician will help them to determine any potential infertility at a glance.

These possible infertility conditions can be discovered through charting:

Luteal Phase Defect
The luteal phase (LP) is the time from ovulation to menstruation. When charting you can accurately count the number of days your LP is. A normal or good luteal phase is one that has at least ten days. This does NOT count the day you start your next menstrual period. If your LP is less than ten days then you have a luteal phase defect.

Low Progesterone
This is indicative if your LP has temperatures that are at or below your coverline. (Coverline is the line drawn one-tenth of a degree above the highest of the six temperatures before ovulation.

Estrogen Deficiency
This is indicative if your temperatures pre-ovulation are in the very low range (below 97.0 F) or high range (above 98.0 F). Not all low or high range temperatures pre-ovulation means an estrogen deficiency, but it is one of the reasons for the temperatures not falling in the average range. Another area of determining estrogen deficiency is through the charting of your cervical fluid. The absence of cervical fluid or the absence of fertile cervical fluid around the time of ovulation indicates a low estrogen.

Thyroid Dysfunction
See Estrogen Deficiency – the symptoms are basically the same – temperatures at the pre-ovulation stage being either too high (hyper-thyroidism) or being too low (hypo-thyroidism).

Anovulation
Anovulation is the absence of ovulation. This can be determined in charting by the absence of the thermal shift and seeing no LP or by seeing erratic temperatures.

Not Enough Fertile Cervical Fluid
The only way you would know this one would be through charting. By seeing when ovulation occurs, if you chart your cervical fluid you can determine whether or not you have fertile cervical fluid or whether or not you have enough.

Charting has its definite advantages in coming to an infertility diagnosis quickly. Charting takes little more effort than simply taking your temperature at the same time every morning and recording it on a fertility chart. Choosing to chart your cervical fluid and cervical position is up to you, though these two in conjunction with your basal body temperature can be an invaluable tool in helping you to achieve pregnancy.

Lori Ramsey of Stages in Pregnancy

©2005 by Lori Ramsey