Women’s body odour during the ovulatory phase modulates testosterone and cortisol levels in men

Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that men may perceive women's bodily odour to be more attractive during the high-fertility ovulatory phase than during other phases in the menstrual cycle. In particular, women's bodily odour may influence important aspects of male mating behaviour, but the precise nature of this phenomena remains to be elucidated. Twenty-six men and five women participated in the study. Each woman wore a cotton Tshirt during the night for 3 days during the ovulatory phase, after which the regions of the Tshirt that had been in contact with the woman's chest, armpits, and back, were cut out of the garment. We evaluated the changes in testosterone and cortisol levels in the saliva of men who smelled these cloth pieces. The odour emitted from the backs of women in the ovulatory phase was found to increase testosterone secretion in men, whereas the odour emitted from the chests of women in the ovulatory phase reduced cortisol secretion in men. These results suggest that the odour of specific body parts of women modulate unconscious physiological reactions in men.

Possible Use of Phytochemicals for Recovery from COVID-19-Induced Anosmia and Ageusia

“…Later studies found that odors of women in the late follicular phase accelerated the secretion of luteinizing hormone in recipient women [469]. Odors of women in the ovulatory phase also had influences on the secretion of testosterone in men [470,471], showing that the physiological conditions of both sexes are under the control of odors of others. Studies on behaviors [472] and the brain [473,474] have shown that influences of odors can happen at even subliminal levels [473] and in a reciprocal way [474].…”

Research on vaginal dabbing: A systematic scoping review

“…Furthermore, the authors found that men's testosterone and cortisol levels could respond to both odours from fertile or ovulating women 10 . Many studies have documented this aphrodisiac character of the human vulvar and axillary odour, stimulating men's sexual interest in unique contexts 10,11 . Such claims have raised curiosity about whether vaginal dabbing could be a scientific measure of sexual attraction in humans.…”

“…10 Many studies have documented this aphrodisiac character of the human vulvar and axillary odour, stimulating men's sexual interest in unique contexts. 10,11 Such claims have raised curiosity about whether vaginal dabbing could be a scientific measure of sexual attraction in humans. Hence, the first step is to search for documentary evidence to that effect.…”

Volatile organic compounds from human skin as biomarkers of menstruation phase and severity of premenstrual syndrome: An exploratory pilot study

“…For skin gas sampling, we used a recently developed technique termed Passive Flux Sampler (PFS) [ 20 ]. It has been reported that PFS reduces the time of sampling and physical burden on subjects undergoing skin gas collection [ 17 , 21 , 22 ] compared with the other methods of sample collection [ 15 , [23] , [24] , [25] ]. We sought to address the following questions:…”