Attractiveness of women's body odors over the menstrual cycle: the role of oral contraceptives and receiver sex |
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Authors: | Kuukasjarvi, Seppo Eriksson, C. J. Peter Koskela, Esa Mappes, Tapio Nissinen, Kari Rantala, Markus J. |
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Affiliation: | a Department of Biological and Environmental Science, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, b Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, National Public Health Institute, P.O. Box 719, FIN-00101, Helsinki, Finland, c Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40351, Jyväskylä, Finland, and d Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA |
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Abstract: | It is a long held assumption that women have concealed ovulation,which means that men do not know when women's menstrual cyclesare in their most fertile phase. Recent empirical results haveprovided evidence that ovulation may not be totally concealedfrom pair-bonded males, but the generality and the mechanismsof the finding demand further study. To examine the possibleadaptive value of the phenomenon, it is necessary to study whetherthe ability to detect ovulation is confined to males. We studiedthese questions in an experiment in which male and female ratersrated the sexual attractiveness and intensity of T-shirts' odorsworn by 42 women using oral contraceptives (pill users) andby 39 women without oral contraceptives (nonusers). Males ratedthe sexual attractiveness of nonusers highest at midcycle. However,female raters showed only a nonsignificant trend for this relationship.Neither sex rated attractiveness of the odors of pill usersaccording to their menstrual cycle. The results indicate thatmen can use olfactory cues to distinguish between ovulatingand nonovulating women. Furthermore, the contrasting resultsbetween pill users and nonusers may indicate that oral contraceptivesdemolish the cyclic attractiveness of odors. Together, thesefindings give more basis for the study of the role of odorsin human sexual behavior. |
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Keywords: | body odor concealed ovulation Homo sapiens human oral contraceptives reproductive status sexual selection. |
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