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 intake¹ - 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.

苹果公司发布的ios9系统有一个新功能--帮助女性记录她们的性行为和生理期的琐事。以往版本的HealthKit应用软件记录了所有的事情，从皮肤电反应到铬摄入量，但是却缺少这项便利功能。虽然已经有应用软件弥补了这个功能空缺，但是苹果公司和其他手机生产公司这一功能的缺失导致他们被指责不够关心女性健康。三星的Health和安卓的Google Fit还没有增添这项功能到他们的健康应用软件里，但是，添加只是个时间问题而已。

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.

想要怀孕的女性经常通过记录她们的健康信号来理解她们的周期，然后抓住最容易怀孕的时间，就像马拉松运动员记录他们的健康指标一样。

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.

苹果公司称，用户将决定Health应用软件收入哪些信息以及哪些第三方应用可以获取这些数据。那些第三方应用必须有保护隐私的政策。当手机上锁后，有关健康的数据应该被加密。如果用户选择上传健康数据到iCloud，那么这些数据也会被加密。

"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 accurately²."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.

杜克大学的医生现在正和他的病人们一起从事于HealthKit的开发，他表示：“很多人通过检测健康数据来帮助他们解决生育问题，现在可以利用这个应用更准确地使用这些数据了。”人们能够追踪到的性行为的数据类型包括是否采用保护措施、基础体温、宫颈粘液质量、月经期、排卵测试结果和定位。

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 doctors.Gynaecologists 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.

宾夕法尼亚大学妇科学家纳撒尼尔·迪尼克拉博士表示，追踪性行为的技术能帮助人们更好地掌控自身的健康以及更好地和各自的医生交流。他说，妇科学家将最近一次的生理期作为近期生命体征，因此如果女性将它记录在手机里，她们将有可能得到更准确的数据。现在，女性普遍利用应用软件记录她们的孕期。

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 recording³ 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 diligent⁴ 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 fraught⁵ with limitations". "I think we always see tech as having risks...but since the evolution seems inevitable⁶, we may as well find the positive," he said.

但是，他不总推荐病人使用应用程序记录她们的孕期，他会问病人的意愿，然后告诉她们这些应用可能有用。他说，没有研究表明这些应用可以提高怀孕几率或治疗疾病，但是这种电子数字记录能够增强病人的记忆。所以通常情况下，人们问妇科学家的问题就是个“谜题”。从前，当病人们想要怀孕时，她们用笔和纸勤劳地记录。现在，全部都是电子化的了。很明显，如果她们将数据记录在手机里，人们会更多地回顾和帮助医生。但他还说：“用应用追踪健康状况有其天生的限制，我们认为，技术总是有风险。但是既然改革势在必行，我们还是看它的积极面比较好。”

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 hygiene⁷ is integral part of healthcare," says Ms Culp-Ressler.

华盛顿记者塔拉·卡尔普雷斯勒正在紧密追踪生育健康问题，她表示，从2015年关于女性健康的角度看，科技巨头（苹果）的此项改变是一个好的改变。她说：“不管在和其他记录健康数据的应用相比之后，女性是否觉得苹果的这个应用有用，这都是个进步。因为这表示大公司，特别是之前受到相关批评的大公司，真正开始关注并承认女性的健康和保健是卫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.

卡尔普雷斯勒女士表示，人们会想要记录身体的部分，比如心跳或睡眠类型。对生殖器官也是一样，而苹果记录的消息又很重要。

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 released.Such 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."

住在纽约的梅根·金在ios9发布之前，使用了Clue这款生殖健康追踪应用已经用了一年。她说，此类的应用是记录生理期和生育力的好帮手。今年是女性关注她们的卫生保健的一年。苹果的改变是前进的一大步，因为这一举动表示，苹果对女性关注自身身体变化的支持和对女性身体变化重要性的承认。