女航天员在太空来例假了怎么办？

LearnAndRecord 2022-07-26

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全国空间探测技术首席科学传播专家庞之浩接受中新社“中国焦点面对面”专访时介绍称，天舟三号为女航天员送去了卫生用品、少量无毒化妆品；飞船座椅和舱内航天服是根据女航天员的身材特制的；女航天员大小便收集系统的高度距离也进行了调整；另外还给她配置了巧克力、甜点和补血用品。

实践表明，女航天员在太空月经基本正常，但是月经期间进行太空行走，容易得减压病，所以在月经期间，一般不进行太空行走。（中国新闻社）

无注释原文：

How Do Women Deal With Having a Period… in Space?

National Geographic

8 November 2017

Sally Ride’s tampons might be the most-discussed tampons in the world. Before Ride became the first American woman in space, scientists pondered her tampons, weighed them, and NASA’s professional sniffer smelled them—better to take deodorized or non-deodorized?—to make sure they wouldn’t smell too strongly in a confined space capsule. Engineers considered exactly how many she might need for a week in space. (Is 100 the right number?, they famously asked her. No, Ride said. That is not the right number.)

The engineers were trying to be thoughtful, though; reportedly they packed the tampons with their strings connected so that they wouldn’t float away. I imagine Sally Ride’s tampons hovering like sausage links in the space shuttle, and wonder if the male astronauts ever came across them and, embarrassed, tried to float quickly away.

All this is to say that menstruation clearly made NASA squirm. Before women went into space, there were not only the sadly typical concerns that women would become weepy or unable to function during their periods, but also that the menstrual cycle might somehow break in space. Would the blood come out without gravity to pull it from the womb? Maybe it would all pool up in there, or even flow backward through the fallopian tubes into the abdomen—a frightening condition called retrograde menstruation.

In the end, someone just had to try it and see what happened. And what happened was … nothing much. The uterus is pretty good at expelling its lining sans gravity, it turns out (after all, lying down doesn’t seem to matter much). Dealing with space tampons is something of a nuisance, though, and space cramps aren’t probably any nicer than Earth cramps. So now scientists have raised a possibility for female astronauts that has only begun to occur to most women—maybe we don’t need to have periods at all.

We have the technology. A combined oral contraceptive, or the pill, used continuously (without taking a week off to induce menstrual flow) is currently the best and safest choice for astronauts who prefer not to menstruate during missions, says Varsha Jain, a gynecologist and visiting professor at King’s College London. She and her colleague Virginia Wotring, who as NASA’s chief pharmacologist was asked to suggest the best contraceptive, published a study of space menses Tuesday in the journal Microgravity. Contraceptive implants and IUDs are options, too, but the pill already has a good track record in space.

In fact, not only have female astronauts already tried out the continuous-pill method (to much less fanfare than Sally Ride’s space tampons), but more women on Earth are opting out of periods too. Polls suggest that about a third of women feel they need to have a monthly period because it seems “natural” and reassures them they’re not pregnant.

“It’s completely safe to suppress the menstrual cycle,” Jain says. Of course, the pill does come with some risks—blood clots in the legs and lungs are a main concern. But Jain says that studies have found no difference in health risks for taking the pill continuously compared with taking it for three weeks at a time.

For long-term space travel, there are added benefits of skipping the flow. “The waste disposal systems onboard the U.S. side of the International Space Station that reclaim water from urine were not designed to handle menstrual blood,” Jain and Wotring write. A woman spending three years in space, say to go to Mars and back, would need about 1,100 pills, which adds some weight to a mission, but is less unwieldy than all those tampons.

As with many aspects of female physiology, there’s still much we don’t know. Could an IUD be shifted by the high Gs astronauts experience during launch? Would an implant under the skin catch on a spacesuit? There’s no reason to think so, but no one has tried it.

Maybe if we weren’t so squeamish about discussing the menstrual cycle, we’d learn more.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

How Do Women Deal With Having a Period… in Space?

National Geographic

8 November 2017

Sally Ride's tampons might be the most-discussed tampons in the world. Before Ride became the first American woman in space, scientists pondered her tampons, weighed them, and NASA's professional sniffer smelled them—better to take deodorized or non-deodorized?—to make sure they wouldn't smell too strongly in a confined space capsule. Engineers considered exactly how many she might need for a week in space. (Is 100 the right number?, they famously asked her. No, Ride said. That is not the right number.)

萨莉·莱德（Sally Ride）的卫生棉条可能是世界上被讨论最多的卫生棉条。在莱德成为第一位进入太空的美国女性之前，科学家们对她的卫生棉条进行了研究，对其进行了称重，美国宇航局的专业嗅探器对其进行了嗅探--最好采取除臭还是不除臭的方式--以确保它们在密闭的太空舱内不会有太强烈的气味。工程师们考虑了她在太空中一个星期可能需要的确切数量。（他们问她，100，对吗？不，不对，莱德说。）

注：萨莉·克里斯滕·莱德博士（Dr Sally Kristen Ride，1951年5月26日－2012年7月23日），她在1978年加入美国国家航空航天局（NASA），并于1983年32岁时成为第一个进入太空的美国女性，也是人类史上第三位女性宇航员。

tampon

tampon /ˈtæmpɒn/ 表示“月经棉塞，卫生棉栓”，英文解释为“a small cylinder of cotton or other material that a woman puts in her vagina to absorb blood during her period”

ponder

表示“沉思；考虑；琢磨”，英文解释为“to think about sth carefully for a period of time”举个🌰：

She pondered over his words.

她反复琢磨他的话。

deodorize

deodorize /diːˈəʊdəˌraɪz/ 表示“除臭”，英文解释为“If you deodorize something, you remove unpleasant smells from it.”

The engineers were trying to be thoughtful, though; reportedly they packed the tampons with their strings connected so that they wouldn't float away. I imagine Sally Ride's tampons hovering like sausage links in the space shuttle, and wonder if the male astronauts ever came across them and, embarrassed, tried to float quickly away.

不过，工程师们还是想得很周到；据说他们把卫生棉条的线连在一起打包，这样它们就不会漂走。我想象萨莉·莱德的卫生棉条像连在一起的香肠一样在航天飞机上漂浮，不知道男性宇航员是否曾经遇到过它们，并感到尴尬，试图迅速漂走。

hover

表示“盘旋，翱翔；徘徊，守候”，英文解释为“to stay in one place in the air, usually by moving the wings quickly”举个🌰：

A hawk hovered in the sky, waiting to swoop down on its prey.

一只老鹰在天空中盘旋，要伺机俯冲捕捉猎物。

所有这些都是为了说明，例假显然使美国宇航局感到不安。在女性进入太空之前，人们不仅担心女性在例假期间会变得悲伤欲哭或无法工作，而且还担心月经周期在太空中会以某种方式中断。如果没有重力的作用，血会不会从子宫里流出来吗？也许血会全部积聚在那里，甚至通过输卵管（fallopian tubes）回流到腹部--这种可怕的情况称为经血倒流（retrograde menstruation）。

menstruation

menstruation/ˌmenstruˈeɪʃn/ 表示“行经，月经来潮”，英文解释为“an occasion when a woman menstruates”；

📍动词 menstruate /ˈmɛnstrʊˌeɪt/ 表示“行经；来月经”，英文解释为“When a woman menstruates, a flow of blood comes from her uterus. Women menstruate once a month unless they are pregnant or have reached menopause.”

📍形容词 menstrual，下文出现 the menstrual cycle 月经周期。

这几个词都是本文高频出现的。

squirm

squirm /skwɜːm/ 1）表示“（因紧张、不舒服等）动来动去，来回扭动，坐卧不宁”，英文解释为“to move around a lot making small twisting movements, because you are nervous, uncomfortable, etc.”举个🌰：

The children were squirming restlessly in their seats.

孩子们在位子上心神不定地动来动去。

2）表示“十分尴尬；羞愧难当；无地自容”，英文解释为“to feel great embarrassment or shame”举个🌰：

It made him squirm to think how badly he'd messed up the interview.

一想到他把面试搞得有多糟，他就觉得无地自容。

weepy

表示“悲伤欲哭的”，英文解释为“feeling likely to cry”举个🌰：

I felt tired and weepy.

我觉得很累，想大哭一场。

period

熟词僻义，也是可以表示“月经，经期”，英文解释为“the bleeding from a woman's womb that happens once a month when she is not pregnant”。

gravity

1）常见含义表示“重力；地球引力”，英文解释为“the force that attracts objects in space towards each other, and that on the earth pulls them towards the centre of the planet, so that things fall to the ground when they are dropped”如：the laws of gravity 万有引力定律，物理课上学的g=9.8还是g=10你还记得吗？

🎬电影《星际迷航》（Star Trek）中的台词提到：Captain, we're caught in the gravity well. It's got us. 舰长我们被引力井吸住了，它吸住我们了。

2）表示“严重性”，英文解释为“extreme importance and a cause for worry”，可以替换seriousness，举个🌰：

Punishment varies according to the gravity of the offence.

处罚根据罪行的严重程度而有所不同。

3）表示“严肃；庄严”，英文解释为“serious behaviour, speech or appearance”举个🌰：

They were asked to behave with the gravity that was appropriate in a court of law.

他们被要求在法庭上表现出应有的严肃态度。

womb

womb /wuːm/ 表示“子宫”，英文解释为“the organ in the body of a woman or other female mammal in which a baby develops before birth”。

📍uterus /ˈjuːtərəs/ 同样表示“子宫”，英文解释为“the organ in the body of a woman or other female mammal in which a baby develops before birth”。

abdomen

abdomen /ˈæbdəmən/表示“（人或动物的）腹（部）；（昆虫的）腹部”，英文解释为“the lower part of a person's or animal's body, containing the stomach, bowels, and other organs, or the end of an insect's body”。

retrograde

retrograde /ˈretrəɡreɪd/ 表示“倒退的；退步的；恶化的”，英文解释为“returning to older and worse conditions, methods, ideas, etc.”举个🌰：

The closure of the factory is a retrograde step.

工厂的关闭是一大退步。

In the end, someone just had to try it and see what happened. And what happened was … nothing much. The uterus is pretty good at expelling its lining sans gravity, it turns out (after all, lying down doesn't seem to matter much). Dealing with space tampons is something of a nuisance, though, and space cramps aren't probably any nicer than Earth cramps. So now scientists have raised a possibility for female astronauts that has only begun to occur to most women—maybe we don't need to have periods at all.

最后，有人不得不去尝试，看看会发生什么。结果是......没啥事。事实证明，子宫很擅长在没有重力的情况下排出其内膜（毕竟，躺下似乎也没有什么关系）。不过，处理太空卫生棉条是一件麻烦事，而且在太空腹绞痛可能并不比在地球腹绞痛好。因此，现在科学家们为女性宇航员提出了一种可能性，这种可能性对大多数女性来说才开始出现--也许我们根本就不需要有月经。

expel

1）表示“排出；喷出”，英文解释为“to force air or liquid out of something”举个🌰：

She took a deep breath, then expelled the air in short blasts.

她深吸一口气，然后一下子把空气呼出来。

2）表示“驱逐；除名；开除”，英文解释为“to force someone to leave a school, organization, or country”举个🌰：

He was expelled from school for bad behaviour.

他因为行为不端被学校开除了。

lining

lining /ˈlaɪnɪŋ/ 1）表示“衬层；内衬；衬里”，英文解释为“a layer of material used to cover the inside surface of sth”如：a pair of leather gloves with fur linings 一双毛皮衬里的皮手套。

2）表示“（胃等器官内部的）保护层”，英文解释为“The lining of your stomach or other organ is a layer of tissue on the inside of it.”如：a bacterium that attacks the lining of the stomach 一种侵袭胃粘膜的细菌。

sans

sans /sænz/ 表示“无，没有（一般为幽默用法）”，英文解释为“without – usually used humorously”举个🌰：

He came to the door sans shirt.

他走到门口，衬衣都没穿。

nuisance

nuisance /ˈnjuːsəns/ 表示“令人讨厌的人或事物；麻烦的人或事情”，英文解释为“If you say that someone or something is a nuisance, you mean that they annoy you or cause you a lot of problems.”举个🌰：

He could be a bit of a nuisance when he was drunk.

他喝醉时会是一个有点令人讨厌的人。

be something of a sth

表示“有些像，在某种程度上是”，英文解释为“used to describe a person or thing in a way that is partly true but not completely or exactly”举个🌰：

It came as something of a surprise.

这件事多少有些让人感到意外。

cramps

表示“（女性经期的）腹绞痛”，英文解释为“pains in the lower stomach caused by a woman's period”

We have the technology. A combined oral contraceptive, or the pill, used continuously (without taking a week off to induce menstrual flow) is currently the best and safest choice for astronauts who prefer not to menstruate during missions, says Varsha Jain, a gynecologist and visiting professor at King's College London. She and her colleague Virginia Wotring, who as NASA's chief pharmacologist was asked to suggest the best contraceptive, published a study of space menses Tuesday in the journal Microgravity. Contraceptive implants and IUDs are options, too, but the pill already has a good track record in space.

我们有这样的技术。伦敦国王学院（King's College London）的妇科医生和客座教授瓦莎·詹恩（Varsha Jain）说，对于那些希望在任务期间不来月经的宇航员来说，连续使用联合口服避孕药（不需要休息一周来产生月经）是目前最好和最安全的选择。她和她的同事弗吉尼亚·沃特林（Virginia Wotring）周二在《微重力》（Microgravity）期刊上发表了一项关于太空月经的研究，沃特林作为美国宇航局的首席药物学家被要求提出最佳避孕方法。植入式避孕药和宫内节育器（IIUD）也是一种选择，但是避孕药在太空中已经有了良好的效果。

contraceptive

contraceptive /ˌkɑːntrəˈseptɪv/ 表示“避孕用具；避孕药”，英文解释为“any of various devices or drugs intended to prevent pregnancy”如：oral contraceptive 口服避孕药。

gynecologist

美式 gynecologist /ˌɡaɪnəˈkɑːlədʒɪst/

英式 gynaecologist /ˌɡaɪnəˈkɑːlədʒɪst/

表示“妇科学家，妇科医生”，英文解释为“a doctor skilled in the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs”。

pharmacologist

pharmacologist /ˌfɑːməˈkɒlədʒɪst/ 表示“药理学家，药物学家”，英文解释为“a person who has studied pharmacology”。

区分：

📍pharmacist /ˈfɑːməsɪst/ 表示“药剂师”，英文解释为“a person whose job is to prepare medicines and sell or”。

menses

menses /ˈmensiːz/ 表示“月经；行经”，英文解释为“the flow of blood each month from a woman's body”。

implant

表示“（手术中）植入，移植；（植入人体中的）移植物，植入物”，英文解释为“an organ, group of cells, or device that has been put into the body in a medical operation”。

IUD

intra-uterine device 缩写，表示“宫内避孕器”，英文解释为“a small object put by a doctor into the womb of a woman who wants to avoid becoming pregnant”。

track record

表示“业绩记录；成绩记录；过去的成绩或成就”，英文解释为“all the past achievements, successes or failures of a person or an organization”举个🌰：

He has a proven track record in marketing.

他有可靠的销售业绩记录。

In fact, not only have female astronauts already tried out the continuous-pill method (to much less fanfare than Sally Ride's space tampons), but more women on Earth are opting out of periods too. Polls suggest that about a third of women feel they need to have a monthly period because it seems “natural” and reassures them they're not pregnant.

事实上，不仅女宇航员已经尝试过连续服用避孕药的方法（比萨莉·莱德的太空棉条要少得多），而且地球上更多的女性也希望不来例假。民意调查显示，大约三分之一的女性认为她们需要每月来一次月经，因为这看起来很“自然”，并让她们确信自己没有怀孕。

reassure

表示“使…安心；打消…的疑虑”，英文解释为“to say or do sth that makes sb less frightened or worried”举个🌰：

They tried to reassure her, but she still felt anxious.

他们设法让她放心，可她还是焦虑不安。

“It's completely safe to suppress the menstrual cycle,” Jain says. Of course, the pill does come with some risks—blood clots in the legs and lungs are a main concern. But Jain says that studies have found no difference in health risks for taking the pill continuously compared with taking it for three weeks at a time.

“抑制月经周期是完全安全的，”詹恩说。当然，避孕药确实有一些风险--主要担心腿部和肺部的血凝块（blood clots）。但詹恩说，研究发现连续服用避孕药与一次服用三周的健康风险没有区别。

suppress

表示“压制；阻止；抑制”，英文解释为“to prevent sth from growing, developing or continuing”举个🌰：

The virus suppresses the body's immune system.

这种病毒会抑制人体的免疫系统。

clot

表示“凝块”，英文解释为“an almost solid piece of something”。

For long-term space travel, there are added benefits of skipping the flow. “The waste disposal systems onboard the U.S. side of the International Space Station that reclaim water from urine were not designed to handle menstrual blood,” Jain and Wotring write. A woman spending three years in space, say to go to Mars and back, would need about 1,100 pills, which adds some weight to a mission, but is less unwieldy than all those tampons.

对于长期的太空旅行，抑制经期还有额外的好处。詹恩和沃特林写道：“国际空间站（International Space Station）美国一侧的废物处理系统从尿液中回收水，并不是为了处理经血而设计的。”一个在太空中度过三年的女性，比如说去火星再回来，将需要大约1100颗药物，这给任务增加了一些重量，但比所有卫生棉条要轻得多。

unwieldy

unwieldy /ʌnˈwiːldɪ/ 表示“（物体因沉重、庞大或形状奇特而）不灵便的，笨重的；难移动的”，英文解释为“An unwieldy object is difficult to move or handle because it is heavy, large, or a strange shape.”

As with many aspects of female physiology, there's still much we don't know. Could an IUD be shifted by the high Gs astronauts experience during launch? Would an implant under the skin catch on a spacesuit? There's no reason to think so, but no one has tried it.

与女性生理学的许多方面一样，我们仍有许多未知的地方。在发射过程中，宇航员所承受的高倍重力值会不会使宫内节育器移位？皮下的植入物会不会卡在宇航服上？没有理由这么认为，但没有人尝试过。

physiology

physiology /ˌfɪzɪˈɒlədʒɪ/ 表示“生理学”，英文解释为“(the scientific study of) the way in which the bodies of living things work”。

Maybe if we weren't so squeamish about discussing the menstrual cycle, we'd learn more.

也许如果我们对讨论例假不那么胆怯，我们会学到更多。

squeamish

squeamish /ˈskwiːmɪʃ/ 表示“易心烦意乱的；易受惊的；神经脆弱的”，英文解释为“easily upset or shocked by things that you find unpleasant or that you do not approve of”举个🌰：

She's really squeamish and can't stand the sight of blood.

她神经很脆弱，见不得血。

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