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Gear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

Basal body thermometer

Two-decimal thermometer for spotting the temperature shift around ovulation

Reads to a hundredth of a degree, which a normal fever thermometer cannot. Taken at the same time every morning before getting out of bed, the daily reading shows the small dip before ovulation and the rise after it, since progesterone runs the body warmer. People tracking their cycles use it to learn how long their own low-hormone phase runs. Pharmacies sell them cheaply.

Who backs it

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  • Stacy SimsRecommends

    Exercise physiologist · Women Are Not Small Men

    For a naturally cycling woman who wants more than a calendar, she suggests a pharmacy basal body thermometer alongside an over-the-counter ovulation kit. Temperature falls about half a degree Celsius before ovulation and climbs after it, and reading that shift tells you how long your own follicular phase runs.

    Source: Dr Stacy Sims: How to Track Your Menstrual Cycle

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