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My 18-year-old daughter knows exactly when it will be that time of the month. Since June, she’s been plugging the dates of her menstrual cycle into a popular period tracking app called Clue, and has it programmed to send her an alert every month, two days before her next period is due.
我的女儿18岁，她很清楚自己经期的准确时间。从6月开始，她每个月都将自己的月经周期输入一款叫做Clue的流行经期跟踪app（应用程序），并将其设定为提前两天向她推送提醒消息。
“It’s great because I never think about it, and now I never have to think about it,” she said.
“这简直太棒了，”她说，“之前我就没刻意去计算过经期，以后也用不着再操这份心啦。”
Like a lot of young women, my teenager is just too busy. And no, she doesn’t mind being quoted, she said, adding, “Mom: I’m not embarrassed about my period.”
她会这么说只是因为她像很多年轻女子一样，实在是太忙了，正如她的原话说的，不，“妈妈，月经并不会让我感到尴尬。”
She’s not the only one. Girls and women are openly talking, tweeting and texting about their periods, and not just to Donald Trump. New companies tired of the stigma are selling menstrual products using the “P” word, singers and artists weave menstruation themes into their work, athletes and others have mentioned it on talk shows and at press conferences. Two New York City high school girls developed a video game called “Tampon Run” — the heroine’s mission is “to rid the world of the menstrual taboo.”
抱有这种看法的并不只是她一个。女孩和妇女们现在都能公开地或是在Twitter和短信中谈论月经，而不是仅仅告诉唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)。新兴公司不再耻于以销售带“P”字的经期护理产品，歌手和艺术家们开始在作品中涉及月经这个主题，运动员和其他人物也不惮在谈话节目和新闻发布会中提到它。在纽约，两名高中女生做出了一款名叫“Tampon Run（或译为《卫生棉大战》）”的视频游戏，女主角肩负起了“让世界不再对月经讳莫如深”的使命。
Add to this mix period tracker apps, which have helped shift attitudes, demystifying and normalizing menstruation by assigning cute icons to once unmentionables like heavy flow, maxi pads and period pimples. Most important, the apps transform the input into crunchable data that can tell a young woman when her period is due, when it’s late and even why she might be feeling so blue.
经期跟踪app也是同类的产品，它帮助人们转变了对月经的态度，给一度被认为是难以启齿的字眼儿，如月经量大、卫生棉、经期粉刺等配上可爱的图标，让月经褪去了神秘的外衣，成为了日常生活的一部分。最重要的是，这些app可利用输入的数据计算出准确的月经周期，在经期延迟时向年轻女孩发出警报，甚至可以告诉她为何她会情绪低落。
There are over 200 different period tracker apps to choose from, and they are immensely popular: consumers have downloaded Period Tracker (by GP International) and Period Calendar/Tracker (by ABISHKKING) more than 10 million times from the Android store alone, according to IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
据IMS医疗信息研究所(IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics)报告，经期跟踪app广受欢迎，目前已有超过200款不同产品可供选择，仅以安卓商店计算，Period Tracker（经期跟踪器，由高品国际[GP International]开发）和Period Calendar/Tracker（女性日历/日记，由ABISHKKING开发）的下载量就超过了1000万次。
Period tracker apps can track a range of issues related to the menstrual cycle including emotions, cramps, weight, sleep, energy, food cravings and more. They also can record when you had sex (Clue’s icon for protected sex is a man wearing a tie) or remind you to pack tampons, take your birth control pill or do a breast exam, all information women say is both empowering and liberating. Some apps are pink and girlie, all hearts and flowers and butterflies; others take a more subtle approach with lots of graphs in muted shades of purple. Specialized apps have even been developed for niche groups like Orthodox Jewish women who adhere to religious family purity laws. The apps say they are “rabbinically approved.”
经期跟踪app可以追踪与月经周期相关的一系列问题，如情绪、痛经、体重、睡眠、精力、食欲等等。它们还可以记录你的性事（Clue中有保护性行为的图标是一个戴领带的男人），提醒你携带卫生巾、吃避孕药或做乳腺检查，所有让女性感到自主和解放的信息。一些app采用了粉红色和富有少女情怀的心形、花朵和蝴蝶装饰；另一些则大量使用柔和的紫色调图片，给人较为淡雅的感觉。研发人员甚至还开发了专用于小众群体——如遵循“家庭纯洁”宗教准则的正统派犹太教妇女——的app，并声称这些产品得到了“拉比的批准”。
“When you see a technology that someone has developed specifically for you as a woman, it really legitimizes talking about your periods and thinking about them,” said Shuangyi “E.E.” Hou, 24, a product designer in San Francisco for apps and websites who has used a period tracker app for over a year. “If we as a society say women should be checking in on their periods, and we give them permission to talk about it, I’m convinced it will be beneficial for women’s health.”
“专为女性开发的技术的出现，代表了考虑和谈论月经是完全合理且正当的，”旧金山24岁的app和网站产品设计师侯双艺（Shuangyi "E.E." Hou，音译）说，她使用经期跟踪app已有一年以上。“我相信，如果整个社会都赞同女性关注自己的月经周期，允许她们谈论相关的问题，势必将有益于女性健康。”
While the apps also can be used to track ovulation, signaling the days the user is more or less likely to become pregnant, most period tracker apps explicitly warn users not to rely on them to prevent pregnancy. The ovulation tracker and fertility prediction can be helpful for a woman trying to conceive, but it can give a false sense of security to a woman who relies on the app as a form of birth control.
虽然这些app也可以用于跟踪排卵，并提示用户哪些日子比较容易/不容易怀孕，但大多数经期跟踪app都明确地警告用户不要依赖它们来避孕。排卵跟踪和受孕预测对想要怀孕的妇女有一定帮助，但它可能给依赖app来避孕的妇女造成安全的假象。
That’s because even the most vigilant ovulation tracking methods have shockingly high failure rates, according to the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, with up to one in four women becoming pregnant over the course of a year with typical use.
这是因为，即使是最灵敏的排卵跟踪方法，错误率依然惊人得高。美国妇产科医师协会(American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)的调查显示，在使用这些app来预测安全期的一年期间，还是会有多达四分之一的女性“中招”。
“Apps are a tool; they’re not actually a birth control method,” said Hannah Ransom of San Diego, a certified fertility awareness educator.
圣地亚哥市的一名经过认证的易受孕期知晓(fertility awareness)教育人员汉娜·兰塞姆(Hannah Ransom)说：“app只是一种工具；它们并非切实有效的避孕方法。”
But many users of period tracker apps rely on them to help schedule their busy lives or for tracking health conditions that fluctuate with their cycle, rather than contraception. Aliya, a 23-year-old from the Bronx, said she uses Pink Pad Pro to schedule social outings like visits to a Russian bath house and to give her doctor an accurate answer to the inevitable question about the date of her last menstrual period (though she admitted relying on it occasionally for birth control as well).
不过，许多经期跟踪app的用户主要是用它们来协助自己安排忙碌的生活，跟踪随月经周期波动的健康状况，而非用于避孕。布朗克斯市的23岁女孩阿莉娅(Aliya)说自己使用Pink Pad Pro来安排洗俄式浴之类的社交活动，或是在医生问及她末次月经日期之类的问题时能帮她做出准确的回答（不过，她也承认自己偶尔依靠它来避孕）。
One college theater student said she always forgets about her period during the week or two before a production, when there are a million other details to think about, so she likes the push notification reminders from Period Tracker Lite.
一名戏剧学院的学生说，在演出前一两周，她总有太多的事情要操心，于是往往会忘了经期的事情，所以她乐于让Period Tracker Lite给她推送提醒通知。
Ida Tin, who founded Clue, one of the fastest growing period tracker apps with 2 million active users in 180 countries, said her motivation in developing the app was to provide women with more information and greater understanding about a “foundational” part of their lives for 40 years.
Clue是发展最快的一款经期跟踪app之一，在180个国家拥有200万活跃用户。其创立者埃达·丁(Ida Tin)表示，她开发该app的动机是为了向女同胞们提供更多信息，帮助她们更深入地了解这个在她们生命中长达40年的时间里都具有重要意义的“基本”部分。
“If you just have the data about what is going on in your body,” said Ms. Tin, “It’s a navigating tool for your life.”
丁女士说：“获知有关你身体内部变化的数据，可以让你更好地规划自己的生活。”
