Elsevier

Fertility and Sterility

Volume 36, Issue 6, December 1981, Pages 729-733
Fertility and Sterility

Scientific Articles
Basal Body Temperature: Unreliable Method of Ovulation Detection

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0015-0282(16)45916-9Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Basal body temperature (BBT) charts from menstrual cycles of 98 women were evaluated by six experienced physicians. The time of ovulation as estimated from the charts by a consensus of at least five of the evaluators coincided with the luteinizing hormone (LH) peak ± 1 day in only 17 (22.1%) of the 77 cycles that were determined by endocrine profiles to be ovulatory and to have adequate luteal phases. An additional 22.1% of these cycles were thought to have monophasic patterns by a consensus of the physicians. Extreme caution in interpretation is urged when BBT is used for clinical or research evaluations of ovulation or menstrual cycle dynamics.

Cited by (0)

Reprint requests: Joan E. Bauman Ph.D., Masters & Johnson Institute, 4910 Forest Park Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63108.