Why should I exclude a temperature?
Certain circumstances can cause fluctuations in your temperature, making it harder for the algorithm to track your cycle and pinpoint ovulation.
To help the algorithm understand your cycle, please use the "Exclude temperature" function in the app if you:
- Feel hungover
- Feel sick
Medication can also affect your temperature. If you take regular medication or antipyretics (fever-reducing substances), it’s worth consulting with your doctor to discover their impact on your body temperature.
Natural Cycles should not be used with any hormonal medication that may impact your temperature.
If your doctor confirms any medication you’re taking impacts your body temperature, we recommend marking your temperature as 'Sick’ in your Add Data page until you finish using the medication.
How do I exclude a temperature?
Once you’ve logged your temperature for the day, you can exclude it by clicking on the relevant icons displayed below (ex, Sick, Hungover).
Your excluded temperature will then be shown with a strikethrough, indicating that the algorithm is not taking it into account.
How excluding a temperature affects my data
An excluded temperature is not taken into account by the algorithm when calculating your fertility status.
If you sometimes have to exclude your temperature, Natural Cycles' effectiveness as a birth control will not be affected. Logging less temperature data means that you will experience a greater amount of Red Days, where protection is needed, and this may reduce your satisfaction with Natural Cycles. Learn more here: What happens if I sometimes forget to log my temperature?.
Keep in mind that the more non-excluded temperatures you enter, the better your Green Day ratio is likely to be. For that reason, we recommend adding at least five valid temperatures per week.
When should I exclude my temperature due to being sick?
If you are feeling sick, have an infection, and/or have difficulty sleeping due to this, then you should exclude your temperature until you have recovered.
It is always better to exclude a temperature than to add a temperature that you are not certain about when you are feeling sick, even if it means excluding your temperature for several days in a row. You may get more Red Days this cycle, but the algorithm will eventually readjust.
When should I exclude my temperature due to being hungover?
When it comes to alcohol consumption, it is difficult to determine what amount will impact your temperature. Our Instructions for Use state that feeling hungover may affect your basal temperature and could result in inaccurate detection of ovulation and fertility status.
If you feel hungover, we encourage you to measure your temperature and click on Hungover to exclude that day's temperature.
Why was my temperature excluded by the algorithm?
If the NC° algorithm detects that the temperature is too high or low to be biologically correct for where you are in your cycle, if it deviates too much from your baseline temperature, or if you have not slept enough, your temperature will be excluded automatically by the NC° algorithm.
In the app, your temperature will have a strikethrough on the Add Data page, and you will see the text ‘Excluded by the algorithm’ written below.
Depending on the device you use, there may be specifications regarding the exclusion of a temperature. Please refer to the section for your device for further guidance.
NC° Band
If you measure your temperature with an NC° Band and see the text ‘Interrupted Sleep’ below the temperature section for previous days, this is because your sleep was not long enough to extract a temperature. With the NC° Band, temperatures are only extracted from sleep periods that total more than four non-consecutive hours within the sleep window.
If you see the text ‘Not enough data’ below the temperature section for previous days, this means there wasn’t enough data available for that day. This can happen if your NC° Band didn’t collect enough temperature and/or heart rate data during the night, either because you didn’t wear the band during the night, your band was not positioned correctly on your wrist, or the band ran out of battery.
Oura Ring
If you measure with an Oura Ring and see the text ‘Not enough data’ below the temperature section for previous days, this means there wasn’t enough data available for that day. This may happen if you didn’t wear the ring during the night, slept less than 3 hours, your ring was not positioned correctly on your finger, or the ring ran out of battery.
For optimal use, we recommend getting at least 3 hours of consecutive sleep while using an Oura Ring; otherwise, there won’t be enough data to extract a temperature that day.
If you see the text ‘Interrupted Sleep’ below the temperature section for previous days, your sleep was not considered long enough to meet our syncing criteria. For Oura, we only sync periods of sleep registered as 'Long sleep' or sleep that lasts more than three hours.
Apple Watch
If there’s no temperature in your Add Data page after you’ve synced the Natural Cycles app with your Apple Watch, it may be that the temperature was not recorded overnight (you can check this by going to your Apple Health app to see if there is a temperature there).
This may happen if:
- You didn’t wear the watch during the night
- The watch was not positioned correctly on your wrist
- The watch ran out of battery
- Sleep Focus was off
- Sleep Focus was enabled for less than 4 hours
In these instances, you will see the text ‘No data ℹ️’ below the temperature section in the NC° app.
Basal thermometer
If you measure your temperature with a basal thermometer, changes in your sleep and measurement routine could affect your readings. For that reason, you should exclude your temperature if you’ve slept differently.
In the app, you can click on the question mark (‘?’) next to the Slept differently icon. You will be asked a few questions about how you slept that night, which should help you understand whether you need to exclude your temperature.
Generally speaking, if the night was unusual for you, you should exclude your temperature.
If you believe you’ve slept differently and are not sure if you should exclude your temperature, have a look at this article: I wake up during the night; when should I measure?.