A recent study shows that men seem to be attracted to the scent of a fertile woman.
Switzerland scientists have discovered that the “fittest” women for reproduction have a unique scent that men find very attractive.
The study revealed that men are most attracted to women who have high levels of estrogen and low levels of progesterone. These hormone levels reveal high fertility, which indicates that men have a greater attraction to women who are able to produce successfully.
There were 57 men and 28 women in the study. The study requested the women to follow stringent guidelines in order to isolate their scents and to eliminate the influence from other things such as soaps, alcohol, detergents or spicy foods.
The women were also asked to not use hormonal contraceptives, to sleep by themselves and not to use any scented products for the duration of the study. At the peak of the woman’s fertility, scents were gathered by placing cotton pads under their armpits overnight.
On a scale of 0 to 100 men participating in the study were asked to rate the smell of the cotton pads. Saliva samples were also collected from the women for the researchers to analyse their hormone levels.
The researchers also considered other elements that might have an impact on the scent of the women, like cortisol, the stress hormone, and genes that affect the immune system.
The research revealed that the reproductive hormones had an impact on how men were attracted to the female scent. Prior research also indicated that estrogen positively influenced how visually attractive women were to men.
The new discoveries were just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.
Photo Credit: “2018.08.10 Workshop: Experimental Perfum” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by FotoMediamatic