Can the temperature tell you when implantation happens or is implantation dip a myth?
I often see women trying to read something out of their charts and their basal body temperature (BBT) to find out whether the embryo could have implanted or not. Let me spill the beans right in the beginning. Implantation dip is a myth. While the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is amazing, it cannot tell you when implantation happens. Actually, nothing can. 🤷🏻♀️
There is a myth about the implantation dip. It is said that when we see a drop in temperature some days after ovulation it means the embryo is implanting. However, the dip is not caused by implantation but by the rise in estrogen and therefore decrease in progesterone.
Do you remember that the temperatures are lower before ovulation and higher after ovulation? The lower temperatures are caused by estrogen that is dominant in the follicular phase leading to ovulation and higher temperatures after ovulation are caused by corpus luteum that releases progesterone. When estrogen peaks again a few days after ovulation it can cause the temperature to drop suddenly. This doesn’t need to happen every cycle. And it has nothing to do with implantation.
Do you need to take your BBT the whole cycle?
I always encourage women to track their cycle, notice their cervical mucus and take their BBT. It is a great tool to know exactly when your fertile window opens, when ovulation is coming and then it confirms 100% that ovulation really happened. Something ovulation tests are unable to tell you. It also tells you how long your luteal phase is (the time from ovulation until menstruation), which is crucial to conception. Once ovulation is confirmed you can stop taking your BBT because then the temperature cannot tell you anything. It can just add additional stress by trying to figure something out of it.
When I started using the Fertility Awareness Method, I used to take my BBT the whole cycle. And it can be useful in order to get into the habit, but with time I realized that after ovulation I started trying to read something out of the temperatures. Something that couldn’t be found and I knew it, yet I couldn’t stop. Then I stopped tracking my BBT once I confirmed ovulation and it felt like a big relief.
Can BBT actually tell you something after ovulation?
The only thing it can tell you is that your period is coming by dropping the day before your period comes. However, some women don’t experience this and their temperature drops on the day of the arrival of their period, which is also my case, no warning.
If you take your BBT, do you try to guess something out of it after ovulation? Do you take your temperature the whole cycle? I would love to know, let me know below in the comments.
If you haven’t started tracking your cycle, I would really encourage you to do so. You can download the FAM chart on my website and if you are unsure how to start or would like to consult one of your charts with me, reach out! I am here to help. I also share plenty of tips on the FAM on my IG account, so make sure to follow. 😊 https://bit.ly/IGbalancedandfertile