Heterosexual women: have you noticed any difference in how you respond to your SO when going on or coming off birth control?
From the Wikipedia article on Claus Wedekind. Note bolded the sentence in second paragraph.
“It has been suggested that MHC [major histocompatibility complex] plays a role in the selection of potential mates, via olfaction [smell]. MHC genes make molecules that enable the immune system to recognise invaders; generally, the more diverse the MHC genes of the parents, the stronger the immune system of the offspring. It would obviously be beneficial, therefore, to have a system of recognizing individuals with different MHC genes and preferentially selecting them to breed with. Yamazaki et al. (1976) showed this to be the case for male mice, who show such a preference for females of different MHC. Similar results have been obtained with fish.[5]”
“In a 1995 experiment by Wedekind, a group of female college students smelled t-shirts that had been worn by male students for two nights, without deodorant, cologne or scented soaps. Overwhelmingly, the women preferred the odors of men with dissimilar MHCs to their own. However, their preference was reversed if they were taking oral contraceptives. [6] The hypothesis is that MHCs affect mate choice and that oral contraceptives can interfere with this. A study in 2005 showed similar results.[7]”
Spawned from a question by jmah.
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16 Answers
Why is this question restricted to straight women? If a study wants to learn about women’s mating choices then all women should be included.
I don’t notice a difference in relationship to my BC schedule when I was on it. I do notice a relationship between my reaction to his sweat when I am ovulating.
I’ve heard this before. I don’t remember where exactly, but the people reporting it suggested going off birth control before deciding to get married in case you find yourself no longer attracted to the guy! Maybe it was the Savage Love podcast. Only he would get away with something so cheeky. God I love that man.
Anyway, this study is only another reason that I’m afraid of birth control. Even though I’m gay, so maybe the trend doesn’t even apply to me, haha. Ohhh, sampling bias… Gotta love it!
I have a completely different sex drive when taking birth control. I don’t think it had to do with the smell of my husband at all…I think it’s the hormones themself. I have issues climaxing and just wanting to have sex at all, when I’m on the pill. My husband hates when I hate it..but it’s the only time we can have unprotected sex. Double edged sword! haha
@gemiwing I had a feeling I was going to run to some trouble one way or another on this point. The studies mentioned here involved female response to male odor and the effect of the female taking birth control. My naive take upon formulating the question was that lesbian couples would therefore not fall into the scope directly on both counts. This is not necessarily the case with bisexual women, of course.
My sister mentioned a total lack of attraction to a male of hers once she was off the pill. I think it may be related.
@hiphiphopflipflapflop Glad I didn’t let you down, then. I have no issue with your question because you are talking about attraction to men, more with the studies that then claim to have the answers for All Female Attraction Evah while ignoring large segments of the population. Plus, there are many women, gay or straight, that take chemical BC because of health/menstruation issues. Since human is attracted to human I think homo/bi/omni- sexual input would be valuable as well to determine any possible sexual attraction change due to BC.
Basically I want to peer-review this study and beat them across the head.
@gemiwing “Basically I want to peer-review this study and beat them across the head” LOL :D
I took birth control pills (several kinds) faithfully for several years in my 20’s and didn’t notice any changes in my libido.
@casheroo I know how other less-than-subtle effects could be getting in the way. My sister-in-law has had terrible issues with tolerating various types of birth control pills.
@gemiwing: I think you’re being unnecessarily harsh. I don’t get the sense that this study is trying to make a statement about All Female Attraction; they’re just talking about an interesting finding that seems to play a role in female attraction. I agree that looking at people with a different orientation would be a great follow-up study, but it’s hard to fault them for not doing it in their initial study. Anyway, if you want to read the article I can send you a pdf.
Ok. On second read, their preferences were reversed when on birth control?? This means they were most attracted to people who had similar MHCs??? Um. This kind of implies that birth control promotes… incest.
@nikipedia Thank you for the offer, that’s very sweet of you.
@fireinthepriory When I first read about this study in a journal some years ago, the notion that was floated about this was that since birth control pills essentially try and trick the body into thinking its already pregnant, that the biochemical string-pulling going on in this case has the purpose of promoting closer associations (not mating!) with the immediate family group to lay the foundations for child support in the near future.
This experiment is referenced in the Discovery Channel series on the Science of Sex Appeal
Women who are on birth control (hormonally a false state of pregnancy) are attracted to odors of men whose DNA matches their own, whereas when not on birth control and not pregnant, they are attracted to men whose DNA is different from their own in order to produce the healthiest offspring.
Any change in hormone can drastically change a person’s mood.
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