Posted on 01/15/2006 4:51:09 PM PST by blam
Woman's scent can lure or repel
Men said the women's odour was most intense during menstruation
A woman's body odour can help her attract men when she is at her most fertile and repel them when she is not, scientists have said. According to a report in the journal Ethology, when a woman is at the most fertile part of the menstrual cycle her armpit odour is at its mildest.
But when she is having a period, and not ready for pregnancy, the smell changes to an acute, repellent odour.
The researchers studied 12 women who wore armpit pads for 24 hours a day.
A number of primate species display changes during their fertile period, but the majority of scientists believed that this was not the case with humans.
Subconscious cue
The 12 women were restricted from eating certain foods and from using deodorant or hormonal contraceptive.
They provided odour samples on the armpit pads, which were then presented to 42 men, who sniffed them and assessed the attractiveness of the scent.
"Axillary odour from women in the follicular phase was rated as the most attractive and least intense," the study's leader Dr Jan Havlicek, from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, said.
"The results suggest that body odour can be used by men as a cue to the fertile period in current or prospective sexual partners," he added.
A previous study by the same team suggested that women subconsciously prefer the aroma of dominant men when they are at the most fertile stage of the menstrual cycle.
Then the researchers asked 48 men to assess how dominant they felt.
The men then wore cotton pads in their armpits for 24 hours, which were subsequently presented to 65 women.
Those who were ovulating rated the "dominant" men as sexiest, but there was no similar pattern among women at other stages of their menstrual cycle.
Would that mean that 'Peter o'Toole' had two daddies?
I remember when I was a little boy, every time my Mother would hug me, she always smelled so good. I have often wondered is it is something genetic, or maybe she just smelled good.
'Bite them on the spine'?
Not my quote...I heard it in a bar...from a short, fat, bald guy...
Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality.
BTW did you know that a hunter bee can smell a flower from distances of over a mile? Once a flower patch is found they can lead the worker bees, who collect the pollen, by using their extremely sensitive sense of smell. But that's another story.
Dogs prefer to sniff an area quite a bit different than an armpit.
Nam Vet
I could make a fortune selling a laundry soap with the smell of menstrual cycle sweat to wash your teen age daughters clothes in. And a second fortune selling some that smelled like dominate men to combat it.
And the odor that most turns a woman's sex drive cold is wedding cake.
Nam Vet
'I take care of it all'
Let me dream on that one ;-)
Just a sec,as I ask
Tony the Tuna what the odor smells like.
I wonder how much this disgusting study cost.
I do what I need to do. I am prepared. Like a good boyscout (I was a better boyscout than a girlscout.)
You have been nominated to the Barbasol Hall of Fame.
"You have been nominated to the Barbasol Hall of Fame."
uh, thank you, I think.
Anyone else experience this, or is my honker just a tad more calibrated than most?
Just a guess.
An arm(pit) and a leg.
Gross!
This is a sentence I use all the time. LOL!
Out of curiosity, did you find a difference between carnivores and vegans? Wondering how that would affect pherones. My nose has been busted so many times I wouldn't be able to smell my house burning down. (but you should've seen the other guy)
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