Cobey, K. D., Buunk, A. P., Pollet, T. V., Klipping, C., & Roberts, S. C. (2013). Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation. Biological psychology, 94(3), 513-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011
Cobey KD, Buunk AP, Pollet TV, Klipping C, Roberts SC. Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation. Biological psychology. 2013;94(3):513-6. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011
Cobey, K. D., et al. "Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation." Biological psychology, vol. 94, no. 3, 2013, pp. 513-6.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test whether men perceive changes in their female partner's attractiveness as a function of her fertility status. We further tested how both male and female self-perception varies in relation to female fertility status. This study benefits from the use of transvaginal ultrasonography to detect fertility during the regular cycle and the use of a within-subjects design in which romantic couples were followed both across the cycle and during hormonal contraceptive use. We find that men rated their female partner as more attractive near to ovulation (when fertile) as compared to during the luteal cycle phase or during hormonal contraceptive use. Moreover, our results point to a presently unrecognized negative consequence of hormonal contraceptive use on male self-perception, with men rating themselves lower in attractiveness when their partner was using hormonal contraceptives than when she was regularly cycling. In contrast, there was no difference across measures in female self-reported attractiveness. Results are discussed in terms of their potential impact on within-couple social dynamics.
Millions of women use hormonal contraception and it has been suggested that such use may alter mate preferences. To examine the impact of oral contraceptive (pill) use on preferences, we tested for within-subject changes in preferences for masculine faces in women initiating pill use. Between two sessions, initiation of pill use significantly decreased women's preferences for male facial masculinity but did not influence preferences for same-sex faces. To test whether altered preference during pill use influences actual partner choice, we examined facial characteristics in 170 age-matched male partners of women who reported having either been using or not using the pill when the partnership was formed. Both facial measurements and perceptual judgements demonstrated that partners of women who used the pill during mate choice have less masculine faces than partners of women who did not use hormonal contraception at this time. Our data (A) provide the first experimental evidence that initiation of pill use in women causes changes in facial preferences and (B) documents downstream effects of these changes on real-life partner selection. Given that hormonal contraceptive use is widespread, effects of pill use on the processes of partner formation have important implications for relationship stability and may have other biologically relevant consequences.
Roberts SC et al., 2012·Proceedings. Biological sciences·Free full text on PubMed Central
Hormonal variation over the menstrual cycle alters women's preferences for phenotypic indicators of men's genetic or parental quality. Hormonal contraceptives suppress these shifts, inducing different mate preference patterns among users and non-users. This raises the possibility that women using oral contraception (OC) choose different partners than they would do otherwise but, to date, we know neither whether these laboratory-measured effects are sufficient to exert real-world consequences, nor what these consequences would be. Here, we test for differences in relationship quality and survival between women who were using or not using OC when they chose the partner who fathered their first child. Women who used OC scored lower on measures of sexual satisfaction and partner attraction, experienced increasing sexual dissatisfaction during the relationship, and were more likely to be the one to initiate an eventual separation if it occurred. However, the same women were more satisfied with their partner's paternal provision, and thus had longer relationships and were less likely to separate. These effects are congruent with evolutionary predictions based on cyclical preference shifts. Our results demonstrate that widespread use of hormonal contraception may contribute to relationship outcome, with implications for human reproductive behaviour, family cohesion and quality of life.
Roberts SC et al., 2008·Proceedings. Biological sciences·Free full text on PubMed Central
Previous studies in animals and humans show that genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence individual odours and that females often prefer odour of MHC-dissimilar males, perhaps to increase offspring heterozygosity or reduce inbreeding. Women using oral hormonal contraceptives have been reported to have the opposite preference, raising the possibility that oral contraceptives alter female preference towards MHC similarity, with possible fertility costs. Here we test directly whether contraceptive pill use alters odour preferences using a longitudinal design in which women were tested before and after initiating pill use; a control group of non-users were tested with a comparable interval between test sessions. In contrast to some previous studies, there was no significant difference in ratings between odours of MHC-dissimilar and MHC-similar men among women during the follicular cycle phase. However, single women preferred odours of MHC-similar men, while women in relationships preferred odours of MHC-dissimilar men, a result consistent with studies in other species, suggesting that paired females may seek to improve offspring quality through extra-pair partnerships. Across tests, we found a significant preference shift towards MHC similarity associated with pill use, which was not evident in the control group. If odour plays a role in human mate choice, our results suggest that contraceptive pill use could disrupt disassortative mate preferences.
Imprecise measures of ovulation obscure the relationship between women's sexuality and the menstrual cycle, as does studying women with different contraceptive goals in different social contexts. Here we present a novel noninvasive method to precisely pinpoint the preovulatory surge of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), demarcating hormonally distinct cycle phases with greater than 95% reliability. Women were more sexually active on days prior to and including the preovulatory (LH) surge. This pattern was evident only when women initiated sexual activity and not when their partners did, indicating an increase in women's sexual motivation rather than attractiveness. A second study replicated the 6-day increase in sexual activity beginning 3 days before the LH surge, accompanied by stronger sexual desire and more sexual fantasies. We propose the term 'sexual phase' of the cycle, since follicular phase is over inclusive and ovulatory phase is not sufficient. These findings are striking because the women were avoiding pregnancy and were kept blind to the hypotheses, preventing expectation bias. The sexual phase was more robust in women with regular sexual partners, although the increase in sexual desire was just as great in nonpartnered women, who also reported feeling less lonely at this time. We use these results to evaluate potential neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying women's sexual motivation and activity.
Mei M et al., 2022·Proceedings. Biological sciences·Free full text on PubMed Central
Odour cues associated with shifts in ovarian hormones indicate ovulatory timing in females of many nonhuman species. Although prior evidence supports women's body odours smelling more attractive on days when conception is possible, that research has left ambiguous how diagnostic of ovulatory timing odour cues are, as well as whether shifts in odour attractiveness are correlated with shifts in ovarian hormones. Here, 46 women each provided six overnight scent and corresponding day saliva samples spaced five days apart, and completed luteinizing hormone tests to determine ovulatory timing. Scent samples collected near ovulation were rated more attractive, on average, relative to samples from the same women collected on other days. Importantly, however, signal detection analyses showed that rater discrimination of fertile window timing from odour attractiveness ratings was very poor. Within-women shifts in salivary oestradiol and progesterone were not significantly associated with within-women shifts in odour attractiveness. Between-women, mean oestradiol was positively associated with mean odour attractiveness. Our findings suggest that raters cannot reliably detect women's ovulatory timing from their scent attractiveness. The between-women effect of oestradiol raises the possibility that women's scents provide information about overall cycle fecundity, though further research is necessary to rigorously investigate this possibility.
Derntl B et al., 2013·Chemical senses·Free full text on PubMed Central
Although a significant impact of cycle phase on olfactory thresholds has been shown in females, limited data exist regarding discrimination and identification. Therefore, we investigated a broader range of olfactory performance and analyzed the impact of cycle phase and oral contraception. We measured 80 healthy Caucasians, including 20 females taking oral contraceptives and 40 females without oral contraception who were further divided into follicular and luteal phase. Olfactory performance of all participants was assessed twice using the "Sniffin' Sticks" battery and intensity and pleasantness ratings of n-butanol were collected. Data analysis revealed that females outperformed males in odor discrimination and odor identification. In the luteal phase, higher thresholds and higher intensity ratings for n-butanol emerged. Duration of oral contraception correlated positively with olfactory performance pointing to better performance with longer intake. Hence, our data show that odor performance is affected by menstrual cycle phase and duration of oral contraception intake and thus can be modulated by hormonal changes.
Ohgi N et al., 2025·iScience·Free full text on PubMed Central
In many animals, olfactory cues are key for recognizing their sex, kinship, and reproductive status. In humans, it has been proposed that males find female body odors attractive during the ovulatory phase, coinciding with peak fertility. However, the molecular and physiological foundations of this attractiveness remain unclear. In this study, we combined sensory evaluation with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for chemical analysis and identified volatile compounds that fluctuate across menstrual cycle phases. We identified three ovulatory phase-increasing compounds that mitigate the basal unpleasant axillary odor, resulting in the ovulatory-phase body odor being perceived as the most pleasant by males. Additionally, these compounds alleviated hostility and stress induced by the basal axillary odor, leading to relaxation in males and an enhanced positive impression of female facial images. Our results suggest that several ovulatory phase-increasing compounds may contribute to the positive effects of ovulatory female odor on males, as proposed in previous research.
PMID 24096241 24096241 DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011 Cobey et al. 2013, Cobey 2013
Cite this article
Cobey, K. D., Buunk, A. P., Pollet, T. V., Klipping, C., & Roberts, S. C. (2013). Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation. Biological psychology, 94(3), 513-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011
Cobey KD, Buunk AP, Pollet TV, Klipping C, Roberts SC. Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation. Biological psychology. 2013;94(3):513-6. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.09.011
Cobey, K. D., et al. "Men perceive their female partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation." Biological psychology, vol. 94, no. 3, 2013, pp. 513-6.