What Pheromones Reveal About Your
Love Life
February 28, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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Pheromones are chemical signals that influence the behavior
or physiology of other members of the same species
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Subtle odors may influence mood, hormone levels, perceptions
of attractiveness, timing of a woman’s menstrual cycle,
aspects of cognition, behavior, and more
By Dr. Mercola
Insects, fish, and non-human mammals all have pheromones, which
are chemical signals that influence the behavior or physiology of
other members of the same species. Pheromones may, for instance,
divulge an animal’s age, gender, and emotional state, along with
their social and reproductive status.
Whether or not humans release pheromones, and what role they play
considering humans have multiple other systems to acquire
information, is a subject of debate and considerable research.
While the underpinnings of human pheromones are still being
discovered, it’s clear that humans do communicate on a
chemical level and, according to The Monell Chemical Senses Center,
“It’s much more than we thought.”1
Pheromones Likely Influence Sexual Attraction
If you’ve ever found yourself inexplicably attracted to a
stranger you’ve just met, it could very well be their chemical
signals that you find irresistible. Humans tend to be attracted to
those with a dissimilar genetic make-up to themselves, which is
signaled by subtle odors (though you probably don’t consciously
recognize).
This ensures genetic diversity for the species. For instance,
it’s thought that each of us has a unique “signature smell” due to a
collection of proteins called the major histocompatibility complex
(MHC). MHCs help to regulate your immune system, and there’s
evidence that they also play a role in your selection of a mate.
Ideally, you would select a partner with MHCs quite different
from your own, as this would diversify your child’s immune
system, making them better equipped to fight off pathogens.
In one study, women sniffed shirts worn by men and selected those
which they’d most like to socialize with. The women tended to choose
men with dissimilar MHC… except when they were
taking birth control pills.
When a woman is on the Pill, her odor preferences change. The
Pill essentially mimics pregnancy, and when a woman is pregnant, she
tends to prefer the scent of men with similar MHC as her
own—perhaps as a biological cue to now seek out and bond with
supportive family members as opposed to potential mates.
What this means is that when you're taking a hormonal
contraceptive, you interfere with your biology and risk producing a
hormonal imbalance that might make you more attracted to men with
similar chemical makeup.
If you were on the pill when you met your mate, you might,
therefore, feel less attracted to him when you stop taking it. The
study’s lead author noted:2
“Choosing a non-hormonal barrier method of contraception
for a few months before getting married might be one way for a
woman to check or reassure herself that she’s still attracted to
her partner.”
Scientific Proof of ‘Chemical Attraction’
There are many fascinating studies that show there really can be
an unconscious chemistry between two people. Often, this appears
related to estrus, or the time in a women’s menstrual cycle when
she’s most fertile and able to conceive.
One study involved professional lap dancers in a gentlemen’s
club. The women earned the most tips just prior to ovulation, the
most fertile period, and the least tips during menstruation.3
Women taking birth control pills, however, did not show a
significant difference in tips throughout their cycle.
A separate study involved men smelling t-shirts worn by women who
were about to ovulate. The men had higher testosterone levels than
when they smelled t-shirts from women not about to ovulate or those
with a control scent.
According to the study:4
“Hence, olfactory cues signaling women's levels of
reproductive fertility were associated with specific
endocrinological responses in men--responses that have been
linked to sexual behavior and the initiation of romantic
courtship.”
There are actually a growing number of studies showing that scent
communication may play a central role in mating… not just in
non-human mammals but in humans as well. For instance, men may
perceive women's “high-fertility body scents” (collected near
ovulation) as more attractive than their low-fertility body scents.5
A Woman’s Fertility Status May Influence a Man’s Behavior
Research even shows that subtle signs of women’s fertility
influences men’s mating cognition and behavior and facilitates
“psychological and behavioral processes associated with the pursuit
of a sexual partner.” According to one series of studies:6
“In Study 1, men exposed to the scent of a woman near
peak levels of fertility displayed increased accessibility to
sexual concepts. Study 2 demonstrated that, among men who
reported being sensitive to odors, scent cues of fertility
triggered heightened perceptions of women's sexual arousal.
Study 3 revealed that, in a face-to-face interaction,
high levels of female fertility were associated with a greater
tendency for men to make risky decisions and to behaviorally
mimic a female partner. Hence, subtle cues of fertility led to a
cascade of mating-related processes-from lower order cognition
to overt behavior-that reflected heightened mating motivation.”
The opposite may also hold true, in that women who smelled
men’s sweat reported feeling less tense and more relaxed than
women who smelled a placebo. Researchers also detected a shift
in luteinizing hormone, which typically surge just prior to
ovulation (but also peaks hundreds of times during the menstrual
cycle).7
6 Weird Facts About Kissing
While we’re on the topic of attraction, you may be surprised to
learn that that
first kiss (or the many after) may serve a very important
purpose. Actually, it may serve multiple purposes. As
reported in TIME:8
1. Kissing May Build Your Immunity
A 10-second kiss may transfer 80 million germs from one mouth
to another. As you pass these bugs around, your body can build
up immunity to them. One such “bug” is cytomegalovirus, which
lurks in saliva. It normally causes no problems, but it can be
extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn
babies or cause birth defects.
Research suggests that kissing the same person for about six
months may provide optimum protection and allow women time to
build up immunity against cytomegalovirus. Writing in the
journal Medical Hypotheses, researcher Dr. Colin
Hendrie from the University of Leeds said:9
“Female inoculation with a specific male's
cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through
mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly
where the flow of saliva is from the male to the typically
shorter female.”
2. Kissing Is Another Way to Assess Your Potential Mate
Women rate kissing differently at different points in their
menstrual cycle. When they’re close to ovulation, romantic
kissing is rated as more important.10
3. It May Boost Libido
French kissing is enjoyed by both men and women in long-term
relationships, but in short-term relationships it’s the men who
tend to prefer it. According to Laura Berman, PhD, assistant
clinical professor of ob-gyn and psychiatry at the Feinberg
School of Medicine at Northwestern University: “One theory
is that their saliva transfers testosterone to the woman, which
in turn increases her sexual desire.”
4. Boost Your Mood
Kissing triggers the release of feel-good chemicals like
endorphins while lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
5. Strengthen Your Relationship
People who report frequent kissing have greater levels of
sexual satisfaction in their relationship. Men who kiss
frequently also report feeling three times happier in their
relationship than men who do not.
6. The Longest Kiss…
The longest kiss award goes to Ekkachai Tiranarat and Laksana
Tiranarat, who kissed for 58 hours, 35 minutes, and 58 seconds
in 2013!
Beyond Romance: Chemical Signals May Influence Mood, Social Support
and More
Chemical signals aren’t only reserved for attracting a mate. They
influence a complex array of biological processes and human
relationships. For instance:
- Women who sniffed fear-induced sweat became more mentally
alert and intelligent, according to a study in Chemical
Senses.11
According to researchers, “Humans distinguish between
fear and other emotional chemosignals based on olfactory
cues.”
- Women who sniffed the scent of 2-day-old babies had
increased activity in the reward-related areas of their brain.12
- Exposure to other women’s pheromones may cause women’s
menstrual cycles to speed up or slow down.13
- Odors collected from pads in the underarm and breast area of
breastfeeding women changed menstrual cycle length and sexual
motivation in other women.14
- Chemical communication may convey social support, for
instance among a support group for breastfeeding women.15
So while it seems clear that chemical signals, including
pheromones, play a role in sexual attraction and finding a mate,
they likely influence other key relationships as well, such as those
between you and your child and, possibly, even close friends. These
signals may help you avoid potentially threatening situations and
may one day even be harnessed to help diagnose diseases (some of
which also emit a unique odor production). So you might want to
think twice about covering up your own natural scent with artificial
perfumes. As neuroscientist Charles Wysocki observed:16
“With every little piece of information we gain, we
scrape away a little bit of blackness on the window. As we peek
through a little more and begin to see that humans have the
potential to communicate with chemical signals, we’re finding
that human behavior and physiology respond much more to chemical
communication than we originally believed.”
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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