Written by: Dr. Amy Beckley, PhD, Founder and Inventor of the Proov test — the first and only FDA-cleared test to confirm successful ovulation at home.
Written by the Tempdrop Team
Written on 2/24/22
One of the biggest things we talk about over at Tempdrop is ovulation. Why is that? Because ovulation is useful to be able to recognize no matter where you are in your life! Learning to recognize ovulation can:
- Help you achieve a healthy pregnancy,
- Assist you in your family planning goals if you’re not ready for a baby, and
- Is a key indicator of a woman’s overall health.
When we talk about ovulation, we often find ourselves talking about recognizing impending ovulation, since that’s one of the most important things you’ll learn to help you succeed with your intentions using a fertility awareness method (FAM). But today we want to bring some light to the usefulness of confirming ovulation as well.
Why is confirming ovulation important?
No matter your family planning or health intentions for using fertility awareness, confirming ovulation is at least as important as recognizing when it’s approaching. But today we’d like to particularly focus on the importance for those trying to conceive (TTC). Knowing ovulation has passed offers a few large benefits for someone tracking their cycles while TTC:
- You have confirmed ovulation, meaning you can take a break from intercourse without missing the opportunity to become pregnant this cycle. (Obviously only if you want to!)
- You know you’ve started the two week wait between ovulation and confirmed pregnancy.
- You can contact your doctor sooner if you need to have any testing or supplementation starting directly after ovulation to help sustain a pregnancy.
Ultimately, knowing more can help you be more successful in your pregnancy intentions, and may even be able to help you recognize pregnancy faster!
Confirming Ovulation with Tempdrop
Many people familiar with FAMs understand the basics of confirming ovulation in their chosen method, and using your basal body temperature (BBT) is one of the most common ways to do just that!
The reason you can confirm ovulation using temperature is due to the hormones at play in your cycle.
- Estrogen, dominant pre-ovulation, is known to inhibit heat-retaining functions in your body, meaning your temperature is slightly lower than if you didn’t have estrogen in your body.
- Progesterone, which takes over after you ovulate, has a thermogenic effect, meaning it helps your body produce more heat.
Between the differences between those two hormones, there is an identifiable shift that occurs at the same time as ovulation, when the transfer happens between dominant hormones. If you want to read up a little more on the effects of hormones on temperature and how that translates into fertility charting, check out this article.
In order to confirm ovulation using BBT, you will follow your chosen method’s rules for temperatures. In general, this means 3 higher temperatures following 6 lower temperatures (the method will help you determine the exact rules). The chart below follows the BBT rules from the popular and well-studied Sensiplan method using Tempdrop readings.
What makes Tempdrop different from other BBT thermometers?
While there are plenty of thermometers you can use to track your BBT, Tempdrop boasts extra flexibility and features for you, making tracking your BBT much easier.
Tempdrop is an overnight wearable basal body thermometer. Its core function is to gather data points throughout the night, then filter through them to find your most restful temperature. The longer you wear it, the better it gets to know you and your sleep patterns, helping it to find the most appropriate temperature. That’s right! No more early morning waking and worrying about disturbances. You’ll get an accurate temperature just from wearing your Tempdrop overnight, stress free!
Tempdrop also has an app, with free and paid versions, to help you chart your cycle! This way, you can do all of your fertility charting in one place - BBT, PdG, and any other symptoms!
To learn even more about the details of how Tempdrop works, you can check out this article.
Confirming Ovulation with Proov
Similar to Tempdrop, Proov uses progesterone markers to help you confirm ovulation easily. However, it uses a separate method (not temperature - so don’t worry about not having enough data between Tempdrop and Proov) in order to do so.
Traditionally, you would have to go in to see your doctor (or to another lab) in order to test progesterone through blood tests. However, Proov has changed that!
Proov Confirm is the first FDA cleared at-home urine test that confirms your ovulation through measuring the PdG (pregnanediol glucuronide) in your urine. PdG in your urine is correlated with progesterone in your blood, meaning when one is positive, so is the other. That means it’s convenient, easy, and accessible to test your progesterone at home now! It’s a similar idea to using an at-home urine test to check for a luteinizing hormone (LH) surge or pregnancy.
The other thing Proov helps with is confirming the success of ovulation, which matters much more when you’re trying to conceive - successful ovulation means better chance of a healthy, successful pregnancy. Using the Proov app to determine your results (the app translates results to quantitative numbers rather than just positive/negative) will help you determine if your ovulation was successful.
Using both Tempdrop and Proov
Since using Tempdrop and Proov independently can help you confirm ovulation, you might think using them together can help even more. And you would be right! Using Tempdrop and Proov together can help you confirm ovulation more effectively, efficiently, and confidently. Here’s our suggestion for how to do so:
- First confirm (or start confirming) ovulation using Tempdrop, waiting for your temperatures to rise.
- Once you start to see an ovulatory rise in temperatures, start using with Proov test strips.
Between Tempdrop and Proov, you should have no trouble confirming ovulation.
Your temperatures from Tempdrop remaining high helps to indicate your body is still producing progesterone, but there’s only so much difference progesterone makes on your temperature. That’s where Proov comes in to give you even more information about the quality of your ovulation, and if your progesterone levels are continuing to rise. If they’re not, having your Proov results is another tangible piece of evidence to take to your doctor!
So what are you waiting for? Start using Tempdrop and Proov together today to get a fuller picture of your ovulation and help you on your TTC journey!
