Basal Thermometers

MNturnsVA

Hi ladies- I am not new to the TTC journey, was very active on these boards in 2015.  I've recently decided to start temping again, and picked up a new thermometer at Target.....forgetting some of the challenges of temping with my purchase until I've come across them.....like it's 5:30 AM and I REALLY don't want to get out of bed- but I can't see the frickin temp I just took- and I had to pee- which forced me out of bed.....I'm wanting to get another thermometer with a backlight and memory recall for the last temp taken, because you know- if you forget what it was before you can record it......I went on Amazon and saw quite a few options, which i don't recall being around previously.  Back in 2015- lots of women were using the Mabis thermometers, even though there was no backlight.  Looking on Amazon this AM- there are a few thermometers that will sync with an app- not the fertility friend app, which was the most used app when I was very active in 2015.  What is everyone using these days?  Spending the money for the thermometers that sync with the apps?? Also, in some of the pictures on some of the thermometers, the women are taking their temps orally......are people doing that? Or vaginally? I thought vaginal temping was more accurate?? I can't remember what the general consensus was in 2015.  I'm WTO- but not really heavily active in the TTC part of things- which is why I started a separate thread.....Thanks!!

dpjennifer

Hey MNturnsVA, Welcome! I'm sure a lot has changed since 2015, so you may want to start with reading: https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12685680/the-ultimate-ttgp-guide-newbies-read-this-first#latest
Also, please introduce yourself here: https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12732259/newbie-intro-thread-w-o-07-30#latest
With this being such a large group, we discourage one-off posts. So I'd repost your question here: https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12732503/chart-stalk-questions-august#latest

lulu1180

MNturnsVA said:

Hi ladies- I am not new to the TTC journey, was very active on these boards in 2015.  I've recently decided to start temping again, and picked up a new thermometer at Target.....forgetting some of the challenges of temping with my purchase until I've come across them.....like it's 5:30 AM and I REALLY don't want to get out of bed- but I can't see the frickin temp I just took- and I had to pee- which forced me out of bed.....I'm wanting to get another thermometer with a backlight and memory recall for the last temp taken, because you know- if you forget what it was before you can record it......I went on Amazon and saw quite a few options, which i don't recall being around previously.  Back in 2015- lots of women were using the Mabis thermometers, even though there was no backlight.  Looking on Amazon this AM- there are a few thermometers that will sync with an app- not the fertility friend app, which was the most used app when I was very active in 2015.  What is everyone using these days?  Spending the money for the thermometers that sync with the apps?? Also, in some of the pictures on some of the thermometers, the women are taking their temps orally......are people doing that? Or vaginally? I thought vaginal temping was more accurate?? I can't remember what the general consensus was in 2015.  I'm WTO- but not really heavily active in the TTC part of things- which is why I started a separate thread.....Thanks!!

@MNturnsVA This would have gone perfectly in our chart stalk/questions thread here.

MNturnsVA

Thanks for the replies ladies- I did do an intro on the 7/30 intro thread.
and i completely understand that there are other areas that could be more appropriate to put these things- but I'm not overly active on the boards at the moment- like I check in once a week or so.  And, I feel that sometimes these questions get lost in the shuffle of those other threads that have SO many other topics/questions in them.....at least that was my experience from the past.

lulu1180

MNturnsVA said:

Thanks for the replies ladies- I did do an intro on the 7/30 intro thread.
and i completely understand that there are other areas that could be more appropriate to put these things- but I'm not overly active on the boards at the moment- like I check in once a week or so.  And, I feel that sometimes these questions get lost in the shuffle of those other threads that have SO many other topics/questions in them.....at least that was my experience from the past.

@MNturnsVA I understand that but that doesn't mean that it's ok to do a one-off post, especially for a question that asked fairly often.  The best way to get the answer you're looking for is to post where @dpjennifer and I directed you.  If everyone posted their own thread for a question like this, the board would quickly get cluttered and the posts with people looking for support would get pushed down

ETA I saw that you posted in the questions thread after I posted there, I appreciate you taking our advice

MNturnsVA

Or that people don't really check them AS regularly as they check the WTO threads or the TWW threads.....Not intended to disrupt the community aspect.....just looking for more feedback from people who are very active and have been actively TTC because those are the people that have the best info and experiences to share.
@lulu1180
@dpjennifer

lulu1180

@MNturnsVA The questions thread actually gets a lot more responses than questions asked in the WTO or TWW threads.  We started that because it gets more visibility than a question on one of the daily posts.  Also, I saw you took our advice after I posted above.

dpjennifer

I just can't right now... I'm going to take the above advice and keep my mouth shut...

virginiaham

Ok. I’m NOT trying to stir the pot, BUT. I just did a board search for “thermometer.”  Over 1000 results, and at least for the first few results pages back the comments are all in the TWW/WTO threads, with the majority of those comments just saying, “yeah, get a good thermometer.”  I think I saw one comment that had a specific brand.

If it’s a question that gets asked a lot, why not let one of these threads happen and we can all wisdom dump here and then when someone else comes by and asks the same question in the chart stalk thread, direct them to the BBT Round Up thread and tell them, “Cool, we did this already.  Click on this thread and all your wildest dreams will come true.”

Just presenting this as a suggestion/solution for answering the same question over and over and over, and I kinda think @MNturnsVA has the same question a ton of real newbies have and the information could be more accessible.  If it’s not accepted, cool, I get it, it won’t hurt my feelings.  I’ve been around before and I know the board structure and needs/wants all shift with the current members, but I’ve always appreciated the ability to talk stuff over and problem solve.

MNturnsVA

@virginiaham- thank you.  I appreciate the insight here, and would also say that I did not think to do a search on the topic.  But will agree that because this particular topic is a pretty common one- or one that a newbie would maybe also want some insight on, I did not see the harm in starting a separate thread for it.  I do understand the other's comments about how the boards get clogged with some of the other really random questions- but i do see how this could be something that would be very helpful to many, especially if there was a thread dedicated to it specifically.

lulu1180

@virginiaham I understand what you're saying and yes, it does kind of make sense.  But you and I both know that the search function is almost never used for something like this.  Not to mention, thermometers and the recommendations are going to change as technologies change.  Like OP mentioned above, when she was TTC #1, there weren't the more advanced thermometers that sync with an app and the Ava bracelet certainly wasn't around (not that I'm aware of at least).  So while this is an oft discussed topic, I'm not sure putting it in its own thread would solve the issue.

virginiaham

@lulu1180 oh girl totally, I’m under no illusion about the search function actually being used, and that’s actually not what I’m talking about.  It’s not gonna get used more, but it’s not really even useful in this case for those of us that know about it and don’t want to clog the board or a thread with a question we KNOW is being asked a bunch. I’m just saying, rather than answer the same question a hundred times in the CS/Questions thread, when it comes up point people to a dedicated, for example, BBT thread as a central answer bank for all the simple repeat questions that clog the thread, which I think is the end to which a lot of the established rules right now strive.  The idea isn’t for a thread that is perfect and relevant for all of TTGP time, but one that will be a good resource for us now in 2018 and it can be ditched when it’s outdated.

lulu1180

@virginiaham So you're not necessarily talking about a thread about just thermometers but the various questions that vets or long time regs have seen time and again regarding BBT tracking and any tips that we can offer.  Then, when a question comes up, instead of typing out the same answer for the umpteenth time, just post the link to the BBT question thread?

dpjennifer

So we can type all of the answers, all in one place where no one will search for it anyway. Then we can point someone, who couldn't even bother to search the recent results of their question in the first place, to all of the information held in that place, irregardless of whether it's even currently relevant or not?

Or am I just too #BitterHagPartyOf1 for this today?

virginiaham

@lulu1180 yeah, exactly.  There will still be questions that belong in the CS/Q’s thread (like, can you look at my chart and tell me if you think my BBT is favoring temps? Or, I have XYZ weird schedule, could you ladies help me figure out when is the best time for me to temp?).  But more a dedicated thread for the repeat questions where the answer that is given doesn’t really change.

virginiaham

dpjennifer said:

So we can type all of the answers, all in one place where no one will search for it anyway. Then we can point someone, who couldn't even bother to search the recent results of their question in the first place, to all of the information held in that place, irregardless of whether it's even currently relevant or not?

Or am I just too #BitterHagPartyOf1 for this today?

Yeah girl, listen I’m just only beginning to get to know you again and your recent journey here but I know that you are well loved and respected here and I definitely respect your input.  I have no axe to grind and I’m not on a conquest right now, just offering an idea and I’m definitely deferring to the current regs on this.

MNturnsVA

@lulu1180
@dpjennifer
I present exhibit A- which I think that Virginiaham is also trying to reference and say as her example (and please correct me if i am wrong @virginiaham) but on August 5th- there was a whole separate post about whether or not OPK's and temping were necessary.  One person on that thread mentioned to the OP that her question could have also been addressed elsewhere. There were 7 other members who had helpful responses to the OP. I believe this is similar to what @virginiaham was referring too.

dpjennifer

I totally understand what you guys are saying. It's not a bad idea at all. But after having been here for YEARS, I don't think most people want to just 'find' this information on their own. I mean, if they just wanted they data, they'd google it and get more than enough information. Heck, reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility answers 90% of the questions that gets asked regularly. But I really think, everyone wants to ask the question themselves and hear it from people who respond directly to them. Like hearing it from someone talking WITH/TO you just makes people feel better about it or something. I just think it's a lot of effort when we know people are going to ask anyway and not search. 

MNturnsVA

@dpjennifer - I respect and do appreciate the feedback, and do agree, that one of the reasons that people are participating in these boards is to have some feedback and common ground with others going through the same thing. I guess to me, that makes it even more of a reason that if there has been one thread started specifically for temping questions- you can reference that.  As i mentioned above, the thread started on 8/5 about OPK's and temping got lots of constructive and positive feedback. I don't know if it was an "admin" (are there admins? I don't remember) did very nicely tell the OP that it *could* have been addressed in another fashion- but then there were also 5-6 other replies that answered the OP's question. What's the point in asking a question if you aren't going to get an answer?? Even if the answer was to read taking charge of your fertility- that answer, is better than no answer at all.

virginiaham

@dpjennifer yeah that’s a really good point.  I guess I meant more like have a dedicated “AMA (ask me anything) BBT/temping” thread and those coming after us could be referred there to find the answers we asked about.  Not like we write out all the info like the newbie thread but an actual q&a thread on that specific topic.  Similar to what you are saying, I’ve found it helpful to read the way others have worded questions and the specific answers they got because of that, if that makes sense.  Eventually all of the common questions are going to get asked, and a new answer with brand new info may be added.  But somewhere to capture the basic repeat questions that end up getting answered a thousand times in the CS/Q’s thread.  Nothing new will fix everything, there’s always going to be a percentage of newbies that want their personal google, but maybe it could be helpful for others.

lulu1180

@virginiaham I do think a thread like that has the possibility of being helpful and if we do it, could link it in the CS/Q thread intro.  However, that would also assume that people will click the link to the thread instead of just breezing past it because they don't have the time or they just think they're a SS and their question doesn't match any of those (even though it totally does).  I do wish other people besides me and @dpjennifer would weigh in here...

@MNturnsVA The point of this board is also to build community and give as well as get support.  Responding to the drive-by threads that just want to treat us like Google does nothing to that end and I think would only increase the amount of one-off threads in general as newbies coming in would think that the drive-by can post their own thread, so why can't they.  The thread that virginiaham is talking about has the potential to be a good idea, but again operates on the assumption that people will use it.

virginiaham

@lulu1180 All good points.  I would love to hear what other people think, too.  But also I can totally drop it if it’s an unpopular thing, like everyone is reading this going 





eta my emoji bc TB app and I are fighting.

MNturnsVA

understood.....

zamoraspin

@lulu1180 @dpjennifer @MNturnsVA @virginiaham Ok, here are my two cents. I don't like one-off posts in general for the commonly discussed reasons. If the occasional question like this one isn't bothering you it's because there aren't that many of them (because they are discouraged), but if they became the norm they become annoying. I'm certainly not as annoyed by them as I am by "am I pregnant?" posts. 

I don't have an issue with creating an AMA thread on commonly asked questions and linking that/those thread(s) to the cs/q thread (good idea, @lulu1180). However, I agree with @dpjennifer that people are just going to keep asking in most cases even if we do that. People don't read the pinned post at the top of the board that answers a lot of commonly asked questions/spells out rules for the board. Plus I agree people want to ask that question about temping, or whatever, directly in a lot of case. 

So to sum up, while I think it's a nice idea to do what @virginiaham suggested I don't think it will prevent people from creating their own threads if they're so inclined. 

suzycupcake

I'm confused. Is the idea to create a bbt roundup thread with all things related to brands of thermometers or a question and answer thread about anything fertility related?

I agree that could be helpful to the ladies here who are already here, but I don't think it would cut down on one off posts because a lot of women join with the attention span of a puppy and just want rainbows and butterflies thrown at them when they share their story in a one off post. When they don't get that, we are seen as mean (not including this op). 

ska8471

Kind of new here, but, I also don't think another dedicated post pinned at the top would be helpful. As others have already said, people (most) don't bother to read them, hence why the rules and thread links to appropriate places to post have to be posted on these one off posts every time. They want their questions answered without the work/effort of searching or joining a community and getting/giving support. Those people need Google, not a forum. 

Unfortunately, there will always be one-off posts. One person should answer, leaving the appropriate "please read the newbie thread and become a part of the community" response and the rest of us should not give it any attention, so its seen that that is the standard response and you won't get your questions answered without going about them correctly.

Too harsh? Maybe, but then again, I was someone who actually read the newbies pinned post and felt the vibe of the board before jumping in. It wasn't difficult, plus I know how to use search functions and Google...soooo...

lulu1180

@suzycupcake @ska8471 While I obviously don’t disagree with either of your comments, we’re talking more about an AMA (ask me anything) type thread about BBT tracking that would be linked in the CS/Q thread for current and future regular members of the board.  Not necessarily something to link for drive-bys and not necessarily pinned at the top of the board

hestia-is-wearie

De-lurking in response to the refrain of “most people don’t read the pinned threads”...sure, one-off posts continue to happen, which means that the posters didn’t read them, or not very carefully. We never see how many one-offs were prevented because people are reading those threads. I’ve lurked a bit on another TTGP app and the amount of daily one-off questions are absurd. I had to unsubscribe from their daily digest emails because literally every day was ten new threads titled “am i pregnant?!?!?!” The pinned threads probably help a lot more than we can see because we can’t see who found their answer without posting.
Anyway, back to my corner

virginiaham

I should clarify I never meant this as a solution specifically to stop one-off posts. THAT, I really don’t have a solution for. Just to make discussion/answers to these frequently asked topic-specific questions (BBT/temping in this case) more accessible, exactly in the setup how @lulu1180 described. That way people can see if someone else has asked the same question and if not, they can ask their questions directly there. (Totally, @MNturnsVA, whether temping/OPKs are even necessary would be a perfect question to direct to an AMA thread like that.)

suzycupcake

@lulu1180 Thanks for clarifying. I tried to follow along in the beginning but my brain gave up.

@virginiaham Great, do you want to create the post to link in there? 

lulu1180

@suzycupcake We were still discussing it among the board regulars before moving forward and starting the post.  

marebear15

So basically we are thinking about splitting up the Chart Stalker/Questions thread into Chart Stalker thread and Questions thread? I think most of the questions about thermometers and the like, could go into the CS/Q thread and I don't mind answering them over and over again because I might change which one I like.

dpjennifer

Instead of having an answer-it-all thread we could have a CS/Q thread each month/week (whatever we do now)... and a Ask Me Anything type thread...
I have to admit that I don't tend to go into the CS/Q thread anymore because I just can't handle newbie excitement and answering the same basic questions over and over again (not intended as shade or hatefulness. Just want to let those happy unicorn rainbow glitter people go on believing that's what PG is, because once you reach the other side of the rainbow and find out it's a giant pile of horse shyte covered in maggots, life really sucks). But maybe we could get a few 'regs' who've been around the block to be willing to monitor/answer questions in an "Ask Me Anything" thread? I'd be willing... as long as no one minds some serious snark and realistic pessimism...

virginiaham  LOVE the gif!

lulu1180

@marebear15 No, there would be a thread created where those of us who have been around the block could list the questions and subsequent answers to typical temping questions; such as I woke up in the middle of the night, took my temp then woke up for the day and it was different, which temp do I use?; Or Which is better to go by same time every day or 3 hours of sleep?  That's more the kind of thread that would be created where the answers given wouldn't usually change over time.  Then we could put a link in the CS/Q thread to that thread so that people can see if the question is answered there before posting in the CS/Q.  As I stated above, I think it's something that could work but only under the assumption that someone would actually click the link before posting.   

marebear15

@lulu1180 - Ah gotcha. So basically a FAQs for TTC. I like it!

suzycupcake

@dpjennifer I'd be down to do that too and yassss to realistic pessimism. 

lulu1180

Since nothing seems completely resolved from this thread, I can create a poll to gauge interest in how/if people want to make any changes that we discussed above.  The choices as I can remember are below, if there's anything I forget let me know.  I'll wait to start the poll until tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon.

1. Leave everything as is, do a weekly/monthly CS/Q thread as we've been doing for some time now
2. Leave the CS/Q thread as is but do a AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread in addition to that
3. Do a temping FAQ thread and link it in the weekly/monthly CS/Q thread to try and reduce the same questions being asked and answered repeatedly

Swiftlet

Personally, I'm not sure how "AMA" is any different than just "questions", haha. And if we start a weekly temping thread, we'll need an OPK thread to go with it. (If You Give a Moose a Muffin, anyone?) Not that these are bad things necessarily, just food for thought And @lulu1180 poll is a great idea!

lulu1180

@Swiftlet Oh, the temping thread wouldn't be weekly!  It would be a one-time temping FAQs based on what us long-time regs have heard over and over and then linked on the CS/Q thread.

@dpjennifer Can you give any ideas on how we could keep the normal questions thread and the AMA separate?  Or examples of how they'd be different?

jhems776

Not to bump this again, just wanted to wave @MNturnsVA! Hey I remember you from 2015, hope all is great!

Swiftlet

@lulu1180 Ooh, I gotcha now.