As you get started with Natural Cycles and first get accustomed to being in tune with your body, you may ask yourself, “Am I doing this correctly?” or “Does my graph look normal?”.
While there is no such thing as ‘normal’, in this article, we hope to clarify what it is you should look for in your graph in order to understand what is happening in your body. If your temperature varies a lot, this won’t affect Natural Cycles’ effectiveness as birth control, but you may get more Red Days (NC° Birth Control) or Brown Days (NC° Plan Pregnancy), which may reduce your satisfaction with the app.
How should my graph look?
While the average temperature in the follicular and luteal phases differs from person to person, your temperature follows a curve with lower temperatures in the follicular phase and higher temperatures in the luteal phase.
During your follicular phase (from first period day to ovulation), your temperature generally stays below your cover line.
In the luteal phase (from ovulation to the next period), your body releases progesterone, raising your temperature above the cover line.
When the temperature has risen enough to confirm ovulation, the most likely ovulation day gets calculated from the temperature curve. You can read more about ovulation detection here.
The basal body temperature fluctuates daily, some days more than others. However, if your temperatures fluctuate a lot and do not follow the pattern of lower temperatures in the follicular phase and higher temperatures in the luteal phase, this may mean that something about your measuring routine should be adjusted. In this article, you can learn more about fluctuating temperatures and how to limit them.
Generally speaking, we recommend that you look at your graph frequently, preferably after each temperature. This will help you understand what impacts your temperatures and how to reduce fluctuations.
If you’ve only just started using the app, we also recommend waiting until you have completed one full cycle with the app (with temperature data) before trying to analyze or compare your graph. Once you have completed a full cycle, this should give you a better understanding of your unique patterns!
If you are unsure when to measure your temperature with a basal thermometer, make sure to check out this article.