For those who take their temperatures

desertrat · Post by **desertrat** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:37 pm

I have been taking my temperature to figure out if I might have adrenal/thyroid issues, since they are so common with MC.

Digital thermometers give you a temperature reading right after the beep. However, I have three thermometers, all with different reading times.

I have one thermometer that records the temp at 15 seconds, another thermometer at 45 seconds and another at one minute.

My question is: Do you use those temperature readings (at the exact beep time) to use for recording your temperature?

It is so annoying to me since each of my three thermometers will give me different readings, even though taken at the same time.

For example: the most expensive digital reads my temp in 10 seconds. It will read 98.5
The 30 second digital will read 97.6
The 45 second will read 97.2

So, as you can see, quite a difference in range.

I have noticed that if I leave the thermometer in my mouth for about two minutes (regardless of the beep time or which type of thermometer I use) I will have higher temp readings.

For example: my 45 second thermometer will say 97.5 at 45 seconds and if I leave it in for two minutes or more it will change to 98.1. Quite a change.

So, which one in your opinion is accurate? Thanks ahead for any help!

Color me confused Mandy

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:28 pm

I've always felt that the longer you can keep the thermometer in the body, the more accurate the temperature. It can't get any higher than your body temperature, but the thermometer certainly can register a lower temperature if not kept in the body long enough.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Gloria

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:33 am

I went through that too with two brands of digitals - no consistency whatsoever. I finally noticed a non-digital, mercury-fee thermometer for sale at Walmart. The instructions say to keep it in the mouth for 5 minutes. I like it; I have a couple of them and they always seem to read the same. And the non-digital ones don't require batteries.

FWIW, when I don't have diarrhea and I'm well-hydrated, my temp is between 98.2 and 98.6. If not, I'm around 97.2. When in a flare, I range between 95.6 and 96.8. Yes, I feel horrible when in the 95s. I thought I had an adrenal or thyroid issue too but the blood work says no. My salivary cortisol is low but my docs don't believe in using that test. It was a self test like Enterolab.