蘋果iOS9又一亮點:可記錄大姨媽!

When Apple released its iOS9 mobile operating system it included a new feature - the ability for women to log their sexual activity alongside details of their menstrual cycles. An earlier version of its HealthKit software - which tracks everything from electrodermal activity to chromium intake - had lacked the facility. Other apps existed that could pick up the slack, but it had led to claims that Apple - and other phone companies - had not focused closely enough on women's health. Samsung's S Health and Android's Google Fit have yet to add this feature into their health apps, but it's likely to only be a matter of time before they do.

蘋果公司發佈的ios9系統有一個新功能--幫助女性記錄她們的性行爲和生理期的瑣事。以往版本的HealthKit應用軟件記錄了所有的事情，從皮膚電反應到鉻攝入量，但是卻缺少這項便利功能。雖然已經有應用軟件彌補了這個功能空缺，但是蘋果公司和其他手機生產公司這一功能的缺失導致他們被指責不夠關心女性健康。三星的Health和安卓的Google Fit還沒有增添這項功能到他們的健康應用軟件裏，但是，添加只是個時間問題而已。

Women who are trying to get pregnant often track a number of health signals in order to fully understand their monthly cycle and therefore catch their most fertile times - much as a marathon runner would track their fitness metrics.

想要懷孕的女性經常通過記錄她們的健康信號來理解她們的週期，然後抓住最容易懷孕的時間，就像馬拉松運動員記錄他們的健康指標一樣。

According to Apple, users decide which information will go into the Health app and which third-party apps can access the data. Those third-party apps must have a privacy policy. When phones are locked, the health and fitness data is encrypted. If users choose to back up health data to iCloud, that is encrypted as well.

蘋果公司稱，用戶將決定Health應用軟件收入哪些信息以及哪些第三方應用可以獲取這些數據。那些第三方應用必須有保護隱私的政策。當手機上鎖後，有關健康的數據應該被加密。如果用戶選擇上傳健康數據到iCloud，那麼這些數據也會被加密。

"A lot of people are monitoring data that helps them plan for a family," says Ricky Bloomfield, a doctor at Duke University who is currently engaged in trials for HealthKit with his Patients. "The impact here can be quite significant in giving users tools to do that more accurately."The categories people can track include sexual activity, including whether protection was used, basal body temperature, cervical mucus quality, menstruation, ovulation test results and spotting.

杜克大學的醫生現在正和他的病人們一起從事於HealthKit的開發，他表示：“很多人通過檢測健康數據來幫助他們解決生育問題，現在可以利用這個應用更準確地使用這些數據了。”人們能夠追蹤到的性行爲的數據類型包括是否採用保護措施、基礎體溫、宮頸粘液質量、月經期、排卵測試結果和定位。

Dr Nathaniel DeNicola, a gynaecologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the sex-tracking technologies had the power to help people take more charge of their health care and communicate better with their ecologists take the last menstrual period as a vital sign and when women can log it in their phones, they are much more likely to have accurate dates on hand, said Mr DeNicola. "It's almost ubiquitous now that women will have an app to track their pregnancy," he said.

賓夕法尼亞大學婦科學家納撒尼爾·迪尼克拉博士表示，追蹤性行爲的技術能幫助人們更好地掌控自身的健康以及更好地和各自的醫生交流。他說，婦科學家將最近一次的生理期作爲近期生命體徵，因此如果女性將它記錄在手機裏，她們將有可能得到更準確的數據。現在，女性普遍利用應用軟件記錄她們的孕期。

He does not always recommend patients track their reproductive health via an app, but he asks patients about it and tells them it can be useful. There are no studies proving that these apps improve the chance of getting pregnant, or cure diseases, but this kind of digital recording can enhance patient memory, he said. Often, questions asked at the gynaecologist's office can turn into a "guessing game". Patients used to do a diligent job with pen and paper, tracking activity when trying to get pregnant. Now it has gone digital. "It's pretty clear if they're putting it in the phone, it'll increase recall, and help us in dating pregnancies," he said. Mr DeNicola notes that apps to track health are "inherently fraught with limitations". "I think we always see tech as having since the evolution seems inevitable, we may as well find the positive," he said.

但是，他不總推薦病人使用應用程序記錄她們的孕期，他會問病人的意願，然後告訴她們這些應用可能有用。他說，沒有研究表明這些應用可以提高懷孕機率或治療疾病，但是這種電子數字記錄能夠增強病人的記憶。所以通常情況下，人們問婦科學家的問題就是個“謎題”。從前，當病人們想要懷孕時，她們用筆和紙勤勞地記錄。現在，全部都是電子化的了。很明顯，如果她們將數據記錄在手機裏，人們會更多地回顧和幫助醫生。但他還說：“用應用追蹤健康狀況有其天生的限制，我們認爲，技術總是有風險。但是既然改革勢在必行，我們還是看它的積極面比較好。”

Tara Culp-Ressler, a Washington, DC-based journalist who tracks reproductive health issues closely, said the tech giant's announcement was a welcome change to views on women's health in 2015. "Regardless of whether women think it's a useless app compared to other tracking apps - it is a good step to see such a huge company, especially one that's been criticised in the past, really stepping up and making a statement that women's health and hygiene is integral part of healthcare," says Ms Culp-Ressler.

華盛頓記者塔拉·卡爾普雷斯勒正在緊密追蹤生育健康問題，她表示，從2015年關於女性健康的角度看，科技巨頭（蘋果）的此項改變是一個好的改變。她說：“不管在和其他記錄健康數據的應用相比之後，女性是否覺得蘋果的這個應用有用，這都是個進步。因爲這表示大公司，特別是之前受到相關批評的大公司，真正開始關注並承認女性的健康和保健是衛生保健不可缺少的一部分。

Reproductive organs are just another part of the body one might want to track like heartbeat or sleep patterns and that message coming from Apple is an important one, Ms Culp-Ressler said.

卡爾普雷斯勒女士表示，人們會想要記錄身體的部分，比如心跳或睡眠類型。對生殖器官也是一樣，而蘋果記錄的消息又很重要。

Megan King, who lives in New York City, had used Clue - one of the other reproductive health trackers - for about a year before iOS9 was apps are a good way to track menstrual cycle and fertility, she said."This is the year of females owning their feminine hygiene," she added."Apple integrating is a huge step forward because it's showing its support of women being aware of what's going on in their own body, and they want it to be something important to everyone."

住在紐約的梅根·金在ios9發佈之前，使用了Clue這款生殖健康追蹤應用已經用了一年。她說，此類的應用是記錄生理期和生育力的好幫手。今年是女性關注她們的衛生保健的一年。蘋果的改變是前進的一大步，因爲這一舉動表示，蘋果對女性關注自身身體變化的支持和對女性身體變化重要性的承認。