Part of the Symptothermal Method is taking your basal body temperature at the same time each morning after at least 1 – 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
For many postpartum parents, anyone breastfeeding, and shift workers, this makes the Symptothermal Method unattainable.
The Tempdrop is an innovative piece of Femtech that bridges this gap. It is a wearable thermometer worn in an armband each night. It intermittently takes your temperature throughout the night. It also measures environmental temperature changes and has a sensor to log movement/restlessness. An algorithm then assesses these values to deliver an accurate basal body temperature reading in the morning.
This allows users to obtain accurate BBT readings that can be used with the Symptothermal Method – suddenly sleep-ins are attainable!
It’s important to note that the Tempdrop is not a Fertility Awareness-Based Method (FABM). It is simply a smart thermometer. You will still need to decide on a specific FABM and invest in an instructor or a method manual to learn how to safely and accurately chart your cycle for pregnancy prevention.
Tempdrop does not utilise bluetooth while operating so does not emit EMFs during the night. Users sync their tempdrop in the morning to find out what their basal body temperature was during the night.
Most excitingly, the Tempdrop can be used with Fertility Awareness charting app Read Your Body (which was originally crowdfunded by the Fertility Awareness community and remains my recommended app of choice).
As with all forms of Femtech, there are both pros and cons involved with using the Tempdrop. The Tempdrop app offers predictions and automatic chart markings. I urge new users (and even seasoned users), to ignore these predictions and utilise manual interpretation instead. All predictive apps have shortcomings that can place users at risk of unintended pregnancy. It’s always preferable to use the rules of the Symptothermal Method to decide each individual day whether you are fertile or not.Â
More importantly, the Tempdrop device has not been through a clinical trial to establish whether it would have any effect on the estimated 99.6% perfect-use effectiveness of a Symptothermal Double-Check Method if used in conjunction with a charting practice. This means that there is an element of unknown risk when deciding to use the Tempdrop. There are theoretically two ways that the Tempdrop could reduce the effectiveness of a Symptothermal Method:
- Early Shift: The tempdrop sometimes picks up on small temperature increases caused by the small amounts of progesterone released during ovulation. For some users, this can cause their temperature shift to start earlier than it would with an oral BBT thermometer.
- Late Shift: For some people, the Tempdrop takes longer to register a shift than their oral BBT thermometer would. If you’re using calculation rules based on earliest ever temperature shift to open the fertile window (for example: Minus 8 Rule / Doering Rule), this will reduce the safety of these calculation rules.
Despite this, I am comfortable recommending it to those who truly require it, with the caveat that I recommend you test it against your oral BBT thermometer for at least one cycle before relying on it for contraceptive purposes.
Keep in mind: Anecdotally, I have heard reports of charters with a higher BMI struggling to get accurate temperature shifts with the Tempdrop device, which may be due to the increased distance between the sensor and the axillary artery.
Some people also report difficulties when it comes time to change the Tempdrop battery, because the sensor can easily become damaged and it was difficult to open the outer shell. Thankfully, it appears the new Tempdrop 2.0 model now has a battery compartment which should reduce this issue.
Tempdrop run a very helpful peer-support Facebook group where qualified instructors and Tempdrop staff are always available to answer any questions that users may have, and I recommend you join this group as soon as you purchase your Tempdrop.
Overall, I recommend the Tempdrop as an innovative, functional piece of Femtech for people who genuinely have no way to take their temperature at the same time each morning after at least 1-3 hours of quality sleep. Otherwise, I recommend oral or vaginal temping (especially during the first 3 cycles of learning where we are building habits!).
Note: If you are really struggling to gain accurate temperatures with oral temping and cannot afford a Tempdrop, please speak to your instructor about:
- Mouth breathing
- Vaginal temping
- Night temping
You may find that there are affordable ways to gain accurate temperatures without investing in a Tempdrop.
Alternatively, you can also look into learning a cervical mucus-only Fertility Awareness-Based Method (FABM), and you can find a list of instructors on the Find An Instructor page.
You can use code TDJESSIEB to save 12% off your Tempdrop.
Please note this is not an affiliate code and I do not receive any commission.
I keep this code active here in case it’s helpful for anyone browsing my website 😊
