The basal body temperature chart in artificial insemination by donor pregnancy cycles

Abstract

The basal body temperature (BBT) charts in pregnancy cycles of 110 consecutive women who became pregnant by a single heterologous insemination were studied. The occurrence of ovulation was proved by the pregnancies in each case. All of these pregnancy charts showed a biphasic pattern, and most followed one of three stated types. The charts of 10 pregnancies that ended in miscarriage were no different from those 100 charts of pregnancies that proceeded to live births. No pregnancies occurred when artificial insemination by donor (AID) was performed before day 11 of the cycle or 2 or more days after the temperature elevation. Of 94 singleton pregnancies, 56 (60%) were male and 38 (40%) were female. This male predominance had not been noted previously. Knowledge of the appearance of a typical pregnancy chart is useful not only in the diagnosis of certain causes of infertility but also in the accurate timing of artificial insemination. Previous work on the association between the BBT chart and ovulation compared the chart with various tests of presumptive ovulation. In this series the charts were studied in ovulatory cycles proven by pregnancy.