My observations on BBT and swaying....maybe onto something?

I'd love to get Atomic and you other ladies' thoughts on this one.

Ever since I started tempting again (and a few of my in real life) girlfriends are too, I've noticed (once again) that my temps are VERY low. This is my first month to chart in quite a while, and I haven't o'd yet, but so far they are 95.9 to 96.7.

I've been secretly investigating and interrogating my friends as to what their bbt temps are.

Those who have a mixed gender are a bit higher--those who have boys, lower.

So, I started googling and pulled out my Taking Charge of YF book and saw the several things can raise your bbt:

1. Drinking alchohol (which I started a thread a while back in which I suspected this could sway pink b/c lots of my friends who have all girls always drank to get them in teh mood)

2. Being ill or a cold will raise it (which Gend. Dreaming and IG have listed as swaying pink)

3. Being stressed (sways pink)

4. Multiple wakes at night (which I pulled out of my ass--BUT....maybe the breastfeeding link is b/c we wake up a few times at night to nurse, which raises the BBT ?) That's out there....but it's a thought.

Now, I know that alot of people won't agree with this---but I'm wondering if once I start experimenting, I'll notice a correlation. Things I want to find out:

1. Does peppermint tea raise BBT?
2. Will excercise raise it?
3. Achohol? (yep, I'm gonna get hammered in the name of research ;)
4. HEating blanket.
5. And probobly most important.....will my BBT coverlines and pre and post o temps change from month to month? And do I need to alter my sway and move it up or push it back depending on what my temps are doing that month.

Thoughts? I'm excited about this little experiment :)

Sounds interesting, I can't wait till you try it out :)
I'm going to be drinking pepp tea once AF comes and drink it from AF - to O to see if helps my temp any.
my temps are low 97s before O, and high 97s / low 98s after O

Thanks Aurora! (one of my girl names btw, love that name :)

I just talked w/ my girlfriend who has 2 girls and she looked up her old charts and her pre o temps were hight 97's and low 98's and her post o temps were 98's and low 99's. Which is MUCH higher than mine (2-3 degrees!).

I'm going to incoporate a glass of wine every evening to start with. Then, incorporate exercise. I'll also see if the LE diet changes my temp, as well as cranberry supps, vitex, and saw palmetto.

I think the indication of temps is higher is better to conceive girls, it reflects the progesterone or oestrogen or something, but this is high for you, so if your temps are higher than your average this is good, dont compare yours to your friends as hers could have been lower than her norms and therefore sway boy.

Mine this month seem lower than normal typically!

Good point, Chocolate! I am taking that into consdieration. I'm just curious to see if this does hold water, some of us might really want to watch our own individual temps closely and monitor them as part of a sway, and if necessary, find a way to raise or lower them depending on what we're swaying for. Just another factor that could help us get our DG.

I think I'm also going to get another bbt thermometer and take my temp. orally v. vaginally daily and then, see if douching and rephresh alters the temp.

Yeah Ive definatly read this somewhere over the last 2 days - basically high temps mean you have more of one hormone which is good for girls, and lower means you have more of the other hormone (testosterone?) which is good for boys.

Im just not sure if raising temps alone would sway if it isnt raised because of hormones, so an electric blanket wouldnt sort out hormones just temps. So Id def. give the peppermint tea a go next month if not pregnant this month.
So I think temps reflect if your hormones are on the right path for your desired temp.

Good luck, all research and experiment are def. welcomed

That's the "official" sway story, that high temps = girls, low temps = boys. Personally I do not think the evidence is strong enough that we can go around saying that with any certainty.

If it IS true, it's NOT because high temps = girls. It's because high progesterone and/or lower estrogen = girls and high prog and/or lower estrogen = high temps. So trying to get your temperature higher without addressing the HORMONES themselves, is really kinda meaningless...it's like fooling your mom into thinking your sick by holding the thermometer up to the lightbulb - the therm. may register higher, but you're NOT SICK and your body is not doing the things it does when it IS sick. For swaying, we want our bodies to do things.

RE waking up at night - the prob. with waking up at night is that it makes your temps unreliable, not necessarily higher.

1)Pep tea HAS raised BBT for people, because it actually affects hormones.
2)Exercise raises it temporarily, like ALL the things you listed. But again, just because the thermometer registers a little higher (because you held it up to the lightbulb), it doesn't mean your body has changed in any real way at all (you're not sick).
3)I do think alcohol sways pink by reducing fertiltiy overall but unless you really drink a fair amount, I don't think it's reliable. Alcohol can raise estrogen for some people so be aware of that.
4)Heating blanket = holding therm to lightbulb. People who believe in ions will say that they produce pos ions and sway blue. I personally don't beleive in ions for swaying and suspect that if your husband sleeps under an electric blanket, it may help lower his sperm count (heat).
5)And herein lies the rub. People freak the heck out if their temps don't correspond to the higher = girl, lower = boy thing and think their sway isn't working and start changing things frantically at the last minute. But the fact is, we have very little evidence that a) prog is higher in people who conceive girls b) that temps reliably indicate prog ANYWAY and c)that any of this crap we do can affect prog levels in the ways that the trad. sway claims (like eating a lot of eggs)

I think it's highly likely that your temps will change as you sway. But I don't think you can extrapolate that into knowing if you're more likely to conceive a girl in a particular month or not. The more things you keep track of and obsess over, the more risk to your T levels going up. So you end up wrecking your sway chasing after something that maybe didn't even matter to begin with, KWIM??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

That's the "official" sway story, that high temps = girls, low temps = boys. Personally I do not think the evidence is strong enough that we can go around saying that with any certainty.

If it IS true, it's NOT because high temps = girls. It's because high progesterone and/or lower estrogen = girls and high prog and/or lower estrogen = high temps. So trying to get your temperature higher without addressing the HORMONES themselves, is really kinda meaningless...it's like fooling your mom into thinking your sick by holding the thermometer up to the lightbulb - the therm. may register higher, but you're NOT SICK and your body is not doing the things it does when it IS sick. For swaying, we want our bodies to do things.

RE waking up at night - the prob. with waking up at night is that it makes your temps unreliable, not necessarily higher.

1)Pep tea HAS raised BBT for people, because it actually affects hormones.
2)Exercise raises it temporarily, like ALL the things you listed. But again, just because the thermometer registers a little higher (because you held it up to the lightbulb), it doesn't mean your body has changed in any real way at all (you're not sick).
3)I do think alcohol sways pink by reducing fertiltiy overall but unless you really drink a fair amount, I don't think it's reliable. Alcohol can raise estrogen for some people so be aware of that.
4)Heating blanket = holding therm to lightbulb. People who believe in ions will say that they produce pos ions and sway blue. I personally don't beleive in ions for swaying and suspect that if your husband sleeps under an electric blanket, it may help lower his sperm count (heat).
5)And herein lies the rub. People freak the heck out if their temps don't correspond to the higher = girl, lower = boy thing and think their sway isn't working and start changing things frantically at the last minute. But the fact is, we have very little evidence that a) prog is higher in people who conceive girls b) that temps reliably indicate prog ANYWAY and c)that any of this crap we do can affect prog levels in the ways that the trad. sway claims (like eating a lot of eggs)

I think it's highly likely that your temps will change as you sway. But I don't think you can extrapolate that into knowing if you're more likely to conceive a girl in a particular month or not. The more things you keep track of and obsess over, the more risk to your T levels going up. So you end up wrecking your sway chasing after something that maybe didn't even matter to begin with, KWIM??

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Well put, explained what I was trying to say and with hormones stated

Def. well put atomic!!!!

I completely agree that 'falsely' raising our BBT (heating blanket, alchohol, etc) isn't reliable.....However, I did just find a thread on mothering.com in which a woman said that her bbt's were VERY low and her midwife put her on vitex and they went up about 2 months later....so that could hold some water...

Ahhh...I love research :)