双语：女性月经紊乱只因“压力大”吗-外语考试-简单网

When Maureen Doherty and her husband got married, she was in her 30s. They were eager to have kids, maybe even a bunch. When she went off the pill at 36 and didn’t get pregnant right away, she didn’t worry much. Her doctor did a few blood tests, just to make sure everything was working fine. But it wasn’t. Doherty got the results in a phone call from a physician’s assistant.
莫林·多尔蒂和她的丈夫结婚时已经30多岁了。他们渴望有孩子，甚至可能想生一堆孩子。当她在36 岁停止服用避孕药时，并没能马上怀孕，不过她不是太担心。她的医生为她做了几项血液检查，以确保一切正常。但结果却事与愿违。多尔蒂从医生的助手打来的电话中得知了检测结果。

Doherty: I’m sitting at my desk at work one day, and she calls me and she says to me, ‘I have a little bit of bad news. You’re post-menopausal.’
多尔蒂：一天我正坐在办公桌前办公，她打来电话告诉我说，“我有一个坏消息要告诉你——你绝经了。”

Being past fertility was not news the couple had expected. Doherty says reality hit when she was on her way home that night.
这对夫妇没有想到自己会没有了生育能力，多尔蒂说那晚她在回家的路上感受到了现实的打击。

Doherty: I can still remember sitting on the bus and thinking, I’m probably not going to have children. And to hear that, you know, four months after you’re married, it was heartbreaking.
多尔蒂：我还记得坐在公交车上，心里想着我可能不能有孩子了。你知道，我是在结婚四个月后听到这个消息，真的很伤心。

She soon learn she has primary ovarian insufficiency, or POI. One in 100 women develop the condition by the age of 40. Unlike true menopause, which ends periods and ovulation, POI is trickier. It can come and go. A few women get pregnant. But others who may have missed a few periods in a row, and chalk it up to stress, actually have POI and don’t know it. The cause: usually unknown.
没过多久她就知道自己得的是原发性卵巢功能不全(POI)。100 个女性中就有一个会在40 岁以前患上这种病。与真正的绝经——月经和排卵停止——不同，原发性卵巢功能不全更加复杂，它会反复发作。一些女性能够怀孕，不过有些女性会以为是压力导致她们连续很长时间没来月经，而实际上她们是得了原发性卵巢功能不全，只是她们不知道。这种病的病因一直不明。

Dr. Lawrence Nelson studies and treats young women with POI at the National Institutes of Health. He says his patients are often shocked that irregular periods can be a big deal.
劳伦斯·纳尔逊医生在美国国立卫生研究院专门研究和治疗年轻女性的原发性卵巢功能不全。他说他的病人在知道月经不规律会产生大问题时通常都很震惊。

Dr. Lawrence Nelson: There’s this disconnect. The menstrual cycle is just seen more of – as a nuisance. But actually, it’s the sign that the ovaries and the whole endocrine system related to the reproductive system is working the way it should.
劳伦斯·纳尔逊医生：女性们有这方面知识的缺失。每月来月经更多的是被人们看作一个麻烦事儿，但实际上，它是和生殖系统相关的卵巢以及整个内分泌系统正常“运作”的标志。

Looking back, Maureen Doherty realizes there were signs her hormones were off by her early 30s. She had hot flashes now and again.
回想起来，莫林·多尔蒂意识到在她30岁出头的时候出现了激素下降的迹象。那时她不时会有热潮红现象。