Why are men attracted to women's body odor?

Some bodily smells are pleasant. And new research suggests they might appeal to more than our noses. Straight men find the smell of women's reproductive hormones attractive, scientists report today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The discovery suggests women's body odor is a cue for fertility.

discovermagazine.com - Men Are Attracted to the Scents of Fertile Women | Discover Magazine

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Body odor gets a bad rap, but a person’s fragrance doesn’t have to reek like teenage boys after sports practice. Some bodily smells are pleasant. And new research suggests they might appeal to more than our noses. Straight men find the smell of women’s reproductive hormones attractive, scientists report today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The discovery suggests women’s body odor is a cue for fertility.

The Scent Of A Woman

What attracts one person to another is a perennial question. When looking for the answer, scientists have long focused on appearance. Limb length, body proportions, and facial symmetry are a few physical attributes that have made the list. But, in addition to our physical differences, everyone has his or her own personal perfume, a signature aroma that is as unique to an individual as a fingerprint. Picking up on these fragrant clues could sway our decisions regarding romantic partners as well. Janek Lobmaier, a social psychologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, wanted to find out whether some women smell universally more pleasing than others, or if it’s perhaps more a matter of personal taste, er, smell. So, he put more than 50 straight men to a smell test involving 30 healthy women’s body odors. Healthy, non-pregnant young women with normal menstrual cycles swabbed their armpits with cotton pads on nights when their levels of luteinizing hormone were at their highest, a sign that the women were at the most fertile point in their cycles. They also collected saliva samples so the researchers could measure their reproductive and stress hormone levels. When the men sniff tested the cotton pads and rated how pleasing they found the fragrance, they mostly agreed on which ones they found most attractive. “This suggests that body odor attractiveness does not lie in ‘the nose of the smeller,’” Lobmaier said.

Smell Signals

Lobmaier and team wondered whether the women’s reproductive hormone levels might account for the men’s preference. When the researchers examined the levels of the women’s reproductive hormones, they found two that explained the allure of their scents. High levels of estradiol, an estrogen steroid hormone that triggers luteinizing hormone production leading to ovulation, and low levels of progesterone, another steroid hormone, made for the most appealing aromas. This means that body odor acts as a signal for when women are most likely to become pregnant, something that men have been evolutionarily conditioned to prefer. If they want to pass their genes on “men should generally prefer women who signal high reproductive health and fertility,” Lobmaier said, since elevated levels of reproductive hormones increase the likelihood of conception. “It is intriguing to find that these probably ancient mechanisms still work today,” he said.

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Can a man smell if im turned on?

University of Kent research suggests that men can distinguish between the scents of sexually aroused and non-aroused women. The detection of sexual arousal through smell may function as an additional channel in the communication of sexual interest and provide further verification of human sexual interest.

eurekalert.org - Men can smell when a woman is sexually arouse - EurekAlert!

University of Kent research suggests that men can distinguish between the scents of sexually aroused and non-aroused women University of Kent research suggests that men can distinguish between the scents of sexually aroused and non-aroused women. The detection of sexual arousal through smell may function as an additional channel in the communication of sexual interest and provide further verification of human sexual interest. This research by Dr Arnaud Wisman, a Psychologist at the University of Kent, expands on previous studies which have concluded that humans can communicate and detect emotions such as fear or sadness through scent. Sexual arousal is also identified as an emotional physical state. Findings were established through three different experiments where men processed the scents of axillary sweat samples from anonymous sexually aroused and non-aroused women. Men evaluated the scent of sexually aroused women as relatively more attractive and this increased their sexual motivation. This suggests that the chemical signals of scent alone can elicit a sexual response in recipients. Dr Arnaud Wisman said: 'The present studies suggest that men are sensitive to the olfactory signals of sexual arousal released by women. This research suggests that these signals released along with corresponding visual and auditory expressions of sexual interest can produce a stronger overall signal that increases sexual motivation. Sexual interest may entail more than meets the eye and we hope that the current findings encourage further research to examine the role of sexual olfactory signals in human communication.'

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The research paper titled, 'Sexual Chemosignals: Evidence that Men Process Olfactory Signals of Women's Sexual Arousal' is published in 'Archives of Sexual Behavior'. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01588-8