Pheromones or how sex attraction works

May 05, 2007

They release us from stress and depression, make two women stay in tune and help us to choose the most fertile partner - these are pheromones.

What are pheromones?

Pheromones are substances that are released in fertile humans and animals that serve as subtle messages to attract potential lovers. Pheromones have no odor but are nevertheless intuitively distinguished by other person.

First, pheromones were discovered in animals, when it was found that some of them have a vomeronasal organ in the nose that acts as mate finder for reproduction.

Every person has his or her own individual pheromones as well as one's personal reaction to other person's pheromones and thus advertising companies who claim that you can buy a scent with pheromone to attract another person misguide us to think there is one smell to make other person want you.

Scientists differ various types of pheromones: those meant to mark their own territory, mother-child linking pheromones, pheromones that synchronize female menstrual cycles and one of the most intricate-pheromones that attract the members of the opposite sex.

Female cycles and pheromones

Dr. Winifred Cutler, a biologist and behavioral endocrinologist, in the 70's study found that regular sex is not only good for your health, but also is very beneficial for woman's cycles. Those women who had regular sex with their partner more often had a regular menstrual cycle than those who hadn't.

Another mystery was revealed when the University of Chicago study showed that women living together for some time would soon have their menstrual cycles synchronized. That proved the theory that pheromones do evoke physical response.

Sex attraction

If we take the science of love, the best way to explain our choice of the partner is to analyze peculiarities of pheromones. In fact, the sure way to identify the man or a woman of your dream is simply to smell out him or her. If you like the natural odor of your partner's body, this will most surely imply sexual attraction between two of you.

One of the most convincing examples is the experiment conducted by University of Bern in Switzerland, where women had to smell sweaty T-shirts from different men. The results showed that women would make a choice on the smell of men who had the different immune system from theirs.

Another study by University of Chicago found that woman's preferences are much more linked to the smell that would resemble her father's smell. The possible explanation for this fact is that father's genes are already tested and that means her children are provided with immune system.

Pheromones and same-sex partners

As it was known that pheromones serve mainly to attract those of the opposite sex, the question arises– what about homosexual partners? Research conducted by Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden studied the brain response of heterosexual women, lesbian women and heterosexual men to the pheromones. It showed that brain scans of lesbian women resembled a pattern of the heterosexual men. While another study showed that homosexual men respond to pheromones similar with heterosexual women.