I am very preoccupied with progesterone levels after ovulation right now. Today was my first day of sticky cervical fluid after four days of extremely fertile eggwhite cervical fluid. Based on my cervical fluid alone, I most likely ovulated yesterday on December 1. So, when I awoke this morning and took my basal body temperature, I expected to see a spike or at least a rise in my temperature due to increased progesterone levels after ovulation. However, when my BBT was a mere 97.5º, I started to worry about having a low progesterone level. Boy was I upset. Just ask my poor husband who received the brunt of my anger and fear!
I calmed down from my initial negative reaction to the lack of a rise in my basal body temperature, I began doing some research on progesterone levels after ovulation. Flipping through my copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health by Toni Weschler, I discovered a short section that gave me some relief in the "Troubleshooting Your Cycle" appendix in the back of the book: "By contrast, this chart shows that ovulation probably occurred earlier than the temperature reflected, because the Peak Day of cervical fluid was on Day 15, but the thermal shift wasn't until Day 21. Thus is appears her body takes a few days to respond to the postovulatory progesterone, and she therefore probably does not have a short luteal phase." So, according to page 325 of the book, as long as my temperature rises eventually, I should not fear a low progesterone level.
But, just to make sure, I continued researching for information online. While looking for more corroborating information, I discovered two webpages that provided similar information as the book. The first webpage states: "What is a slow-riser? In some women, the thermal shift may be gradual over several days. They [are] called slow-risers, which means that it took a little longer for progesterone levels to rise high enough for temperatures to become elevated. This is a normal finding and does not affect fertility." The second webpage recites a similar finding: "Some women experience a slow rise over a period of days rather than an immediate rise, which makes it more difficult to ascertain ovulation. However, even with the slow rise, a pattern of temps in a higher range will become evident after several days and one can generally pinpoint the day of ovulation with some degree of accuracy. It is helpful to also take note of other fertility signs, such as cervical mucus and cervical position (discussed elsewhere in this section)." So, again, a low progesterone level may not be the problem.
Looking at my current chart, I can see a noticeable rising pattern from the beginning of my cycle to now. In general, my temperatures have risen. So, so long as my temperatures continue to rise over the next few days and then remain high until my next period (or throughout my pregnancy, fingers crossed), my lack of a basal body temperature spike is not indicative of low progesterone levels after ovulation. Again, only time will tell, but I now suspect that my temperatures will take a few days to rise after ovulation based on the length of my menstrual cycles in general. If my body takes longer than the average fourteen days to build up enough hormones to ovulation, then a reasonable conclusion is that my body also takes longer than average to react to progesterone after ovulation. Fingers crossed that I am just a slow riser!