Cyclendar.com Help | Help Contents | Live demo | Contact us | Home page

7. Medical terms and facts

You may need to see a physician to get familiar with these medical terms.

Basal body temperature (BBT). This is a temperature of your body after several hours (at least four) of sleep. Taking BBT regularly is important as you can detect ovulation and pregnancy using it. Taking your BBT should be the first thing you do in the morning, the same time every morning. You can do it vaginally, anally or orally, just do it consistently. Do not round the readings. Various factors like stress, drugs, illness and so on can influence the accuracy of BBT, if you are not sure that the temperature is accurate, set BBT is inaccurate flag.
Birth control pills. Hormonal pills change the processes during the cycle to prevent conception. If a woman takes birth control pills, usually her cycle will last 28 days.
Cervical secretions. Mucus secreted from the cervix. It changes during the cycle, and it is wet, slippery, transparent, stretchy at the time of ovulation.
Fertility. The ability to conceive.
Fertility awareness method (FAM). A natural family planning method based on the identification of the fertile time by recording of BBT and observing other physiological changes during the menstrual cycle, such as cervical mucus.
Luteal phase. The second phase of the cycle, from ovulation to the next menstruation.
Menstrual cycle. A period that starts on the first day of menstruation and ends when the next menstruation begins. Menstrual cycle can be in the range of 19-60 days, averaging to 28 days.
Natural family planning (NFP). A behavioral birth control method based on fertility awareness.
Ovulation. The release of an egg from a follicle. It can be detected using an ovulation test or by a rise in BBT (at least 0.4°F / 0.2°C). Methods such as observing secretions or position of the cervix are less reliable. For more information see Ovulation.
Ovulation tests. To find ovulation you can take LH tests, which can detect surge in leutenizing hormone (LH). Ovulation usually occurs 12-36 hours after LH surge.
Position of cervix. Cervix changes its position during the cycle, being high, soft, open at the time of ovulation.
Pregnancy symptoms. There are number of signs of pregnancy, one of them is that BBT will stay high or become even higher (while, if there was no pregnancy, it would go down in the first days of the new cycle). Other symptoms include the absence of menstruation and positive pregnancy test results (hCG). Fore more information see Signs of Pregnancy.