2023年经济学人 荷尔蒙测试无法正确检测女性生育能力(2)

 

    Time to Conceive looked at 750 women aged¹ between 30 and 44 who were living with a male partner not known to be infertile², had no diagnosis³ of infertility⁴ of their own, and had recently started trying to become pregnant.

    “怀孕时间”研究调查了750名年龄在30岁到44岁之间的女性，这些没有被诊断为不孕不育的女性都分别与一名男性伴侣生活在一起，并且最近开始尝试怀孕。

    The team took blood and urine samples from these volunteers and measured levels of three hormones⁶ often examined by fertility tests.

    研究小组从这些志愿者身上采集了血液和尿液样本，并检测了生育测试中经常检查的三种荷尔蒙的水平。

    They then followed each volunteer for a year.

    然后，他们对所有志愿者进行了一年的跟踪调查。

    The upshot, published in 2017, was that hormone⁵ levels were uncorrelated with pregnancy⁷ within the 12-month window through which the researchers were looking.

    2017年发表的研究结果是，在研究人员观察的12个月时间内，荷尔蒙水平与是否怀孕无关。

    But perhaps, Dr. Steiner subsequently speculated, that window was too narrow.

    但斯坦纳博士随后推测，也许这个时间太短了。

    In 2020 she therefore got back in touch with the original participants for a follow-up.

    因此，在2020年，她与最初的研究对象重新取得了联系，以便进行后续调查。

    She asked them if they would fill out a questionnaire about how many children they had had, how long it had taken to get pregnant and whether they had been diagnosed with infertility.

    她询问对方是否愿意填写一份调查问卷，内容包括他们有几个孩子，怀孕用了多长时间，以及他们是否被诊断为不孕不育。

    Some 336 of them agreed to participate.

    约336人同意填写问卷。

    Among these there had been 239 pregnancies⁸, resulting in 225 live births.

    其中有239人怀孕，225例为活产。

    More sadly, 73 participants were infertile.

    悲伤的是，73名研究对象不育。

    But the hormone levels in the tests carried out in the original study did not predict these outcomes.

    但在最初的研究中，测试的荷尔蒙水平并没能预测这些结果。

    There was no difference, the researchers found, between women with poor results and those with normal ones.

    研究人员发现，不育的女性和最终生育的女性荷尔蒙水平没有区别。

    In the case of one substance, for example - anti-Mullerian hormone, which is thought predictive because it is produced by cells in the egg-bearing follicles of the ovaries, and is thus believed to reflect the number of those follicles - 79% of those with low levels of it went on to give birth.

    举一个例子，抗缪勒管激素被认为能够预测生育能力，因为它是由卵巢中有卵子的卵泡中的细胞产生的，因此人们认为它能够反映有卵子的卵泡的数量，而79%抗缪勒管激素低的人能够生育。

    That was statistically⁹ indistinguishable from the 71% of mothers with normal levels.

    荷尔蒙水平正常的女性71%能够生育，这两个数据在统计上相一致。

    The decline in fertility, says Dr. Steiner, is thus clearly not related to the decline in the quantity of eggs, but presumably to their quality.

    因此，斯坦纳博士说，生育能力的降低显然与卵子数量的减少无关，而可能与它们的质量有关。

    And how to measure that remains¹⁰ unknown.

    但如何检测卵子的质量仍是个未知数。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 infertile   

adj.不孕的；不肥沃的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
• Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。

3 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

4 infertility   

n.不肥沃，不毛；不育

参考例句：

• It is the Geneva, Switzerland-based Biotech Company's second recombinant infertility drug. 它是瑞士生物技术公司在日内瓦的公司生产的第二种重组治疗不孕症的药。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术制药疫苗
• Endometritis is a cause of infertility. 子宫内膜炎是不育的原子。 来自辞典例句

5 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

6 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

7 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

8 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

9 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。