Men prefer the scents of fertile-phase women to the scents of luteal-phase women — and new research has found that women do, too.
In a study published January in the journal Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, researchers Savannah L. Woodward, Melissa Emery Thompson and Steven W. Gangestad examined the attractiveness of women’s body odors over the menstrual cycle.
Previous research has consistently found that men prefer the scent of women in the days immediately prior to ovulation. But two studies that examined women’s preferences produced mixed results.
“The current study sought to examine, using a more powerful design, women’s evaluation of the scents of women associated with the fertile and luteal phases,” Woodward and her colleagues said.
Fifteen women, who varied in age from 18 to 38, donated the shirts used in the study. The women were not taking hormonal birth control, and were not menopausal, pregnant or breastfeeding.
While wearing the shirt intended to be used for research, the women were asked to shower with unscented soap and not use scented deodorant, soaps, and perfumes. They were also asked to avoid spicy and pungent foods, sleeping with another person, and having sex with another person.
Sixty-seven women ages 18–55 were recruited to smell and rate each shirt on a scale from one to ten.
“Just as men do, women in our study found the scents of fertile-phase women to be more attractive than the scents of luteal-phase women,” the researchers said.
But why do women prefer the scents of fertile-phase females? Woodward and her colleagues provided three potential explanations.
“One possibility is that these responses reflect female interest in other women’s fertile status,” the researchers explained. “Some studies have hypothesized that olfactory or pheromonal cues may facilitate reproductive synchrony. One possible benefit then is that women are signaled by fertile-phase potential competitors that now is the time to reproduce.”
It is also possible that women’s preference for fertile-phase scents is a byproduct of evolutionary adaptations that men possess.
“Men prefer women’s fertile-phase scents,” Woodward and her colleagues said. “Perhaps women do too, for the same reason that, for example, men have nipples: Though not adaptive traits in a sex themselves, these traits are expressed in the other sex due to lack of fully effective sex limitation.”
Lastly, women might prefer the scent of fertile-phase women because they tend to excrete more androstenol than luteal-phase women. Androstenol is a pheromone that is sometimes used as an aphrodisiac to attract women.
“Perhaps as byproduct of women’s adaptive preference for male androstenol, women also find more appealing the scents of women with greater concentrations of androstenol.”
