Women's periods do not synchronize¹ if they live together, a new study claims.

一项最新研究指出，女性同居并不会使得她们的生理周期趋同。

Scientists have been examining the baffling phenomenon² ever since a 1971 study showed female college roommates inexplicably³ ended up with the same menstrual cycle.

1971年的一份研究指出，某大学寝室一群女生莫名其妙地同时结束了生理周期，自那以后，科学家们一直在研究这个令人费解的现象。

The lead researcher Martha McClintock concluded women give off pheromones that influence other women's hormones⁴.

当时那项研究的首席研究员玛莎·迈克林塔克得出结论称，女性会释放出影响其他女性荷尔蒙的信息素。

But according to research by the University of Oxford⁵, the whole idea - also known as 'the McClintock effect' - is nothing more than a myth.

但是根据牛津大学的一项最新研究显示，整个观念（亦被称之为“麦克林托克”效应）纯属虚构。

Researchers collaborated⁶ with the period-tracking app Clue to analyze⁷ data on 1,500 women who responded to a survey, the Guardian⁸ reports.

卫报》报道称，研究人员们与生理期追踪软件Clue进行了合作，分析了1500名女性参与某项调查时的数据。

They honed in on 360 women who regularly used the app, do not use hormonal⁹ birth control, and have a close relationship with another woman who they see regularly.

他们重点关注了其中360名女性，她们定期使用该软件，从不使用激素避孕药，还和另一个经常见面的女性保持亲密关系。

Following three menstrual cycles, the researchers concluded that the majority of participants (273) actually saw their cycles become more distanced from their close female friend.

在跟踪过三次生理期之后，研究人员得出结论称，大多数参与者（273人）的生理期事实上和她们闺蜜的生理期隔得越来越远。

Only 79 pairs experienced the mythical¹⁰ syncing phenomenon.

只有79对研究对象经历了神奇的生理期同步现象。

And there was no clear correlation¹¹ between menstrual cycles and living together. The findings are hardly groundbreaking. Few studies have been able to reach the same conclusion as the 1971 investigation¹² by Martha McClintock at Wellesley College.

而且生理周期和同居也没有明显的相关性。这些研究并没有什么突破性。很少有研究能够得出和1971年麦克林托克在韦尔斯利学院调查所得出的一样结果。

In fact, even McClintock's former colleague, psychologist Jeffrey Schank who now works at the University of California, Davis, has since found flaws in their own methods.

事实上，就连麦克林托克以前的同事、心理学家杰佛里·尚克（他现在任教于加州大学戴维斯分校）自那以后也发现了他们研究方法中存在的缺陷。

In a highly-controlled pheromone study on rodents¹³, Schank found that the idea of these two pheromones communicating and influencing one another does not work.

杰佛里发现，在一项对啮齿动物高度控制的信息素研究中，认为两种信息素会互相交流并互相影响是不正确的。