English
In daily life, many people rely on cloud watching to identify changes in weather. Similarly, a woman's body also holds wonderful "clouds" that can help us understand the internal health of our bodies through these external signs.
For example, menstruation is a very obvious "cloud." Once there are any abnormalities in cycle, color, thickness, etc., we immediately become alert and take action to nip the disease in the bud. Another important and interesting "cloud" that we often overlook is the basal body temperature. It has the most say in determining whether a woman is pregnant, whether she is in her optimal fertile period, whether she has the conditions for pregnancy, and whether she suffers from certain female diseases.
Basal body temperature, also known as resting temperature, refers to the body temperature measured by smart basal thermometer before getting up, eating, speaking or exercising after 6-8 hours of sleep. In clinical practice, the body temperature measured after getting up at 6-7 in the morning, after eliminating all types of disturbance, is called basal body temperature. Basal body temperature is the lowest body temperature within a day and is mainly used to measure the body's metabolism and hormone levels.
Of course, both men and women have a basal body temperature, but men's basal body temperature almost never changes. Although there may be minor fluctuations, they are not persistent, and in medicine, this is called a monophasic state. In contrast, female reproductive hormones are more complex and constantly changing, so the basal body temperature also fluctuates accordingly.
In order to understand the changing pattern of basal body temperature, we need to start with a woman's ovulation period because the changes of basal body temperature are based on the ovulation period. The ovulation period refers to about the 14th day before a woman's next menstrual period. The basal body temperature of normal childbearing women shows a significant physiological rhythm according to the menstrual cycle. After each menstrual period, the measured temperature is mostly around 36.5℃. It drops to its lowest point before ovulation and then rapidly rises by 0.4-0.5℃ due to the progesterone secreted by the corpus luteum's action on the brain's thermoregulatory center 1-2 days after ovulation. It then remains high for about 14 days until 1-2 days before the next menstrual period, when it drops again. If the basal body temperature measured every day in a normal menstrual cycle is connected, it forms a biphasic pattern of low in the first half and high in the second half, known as a bi-phasic state in medicine.
Women who can measure biphasic body temperature every month are lucky. This indicates that their endocrine system is normal, and their ovaries ovulate with normal corpus luteum function. On the other hand, if it is a monophonic pattern, then it may not be good news, indicating that the ovaries are not ovulating even though they are developed and the corpus luteum's function is abnormal. Women should not underestimate the corpus luteum. It is one of the core factors that determine whether a woman has the conditions for pregnancy and affect the quality of a woman's sexual life. The corpus luteum is the residual material left by the mature egg after ovulation. If a woman is pregnant, it will turn into "pregnancy corpus luteum," and if not, it will degrade and wait for the next menstrual cycle. Some infertile women receive progesterone injections from their doctors for this reason.
