Smells like Romance.

I always thought that the birth control was a bit of a scary thing: yeah, sure it's a sexually liberating and revolutionary contraceptive for women everywhere, but still, there had to have been some kind of side effect for essentially mimicking a pregnancy hormonally. Who knew that the pill would have an effect on the kind of mate women chose?

In earlier T-shirt-sniffing studies, women taking birth control pills seemed to be attracted to the "wrong" men. Intrigued, Roberts and colleagues took a closer look.

They paid 37 women to smell men's T-shirts before and after going on the pill. Then they compared the women's before- and after-pill ratings of the odors to those of 60 women who did not use oral contraceptives.

The result: After taking the pill, women shifted toward preferring genetically similar men. Women who did not take the pill slightly increased their preference for genetically different men.

Why? Roberts notes that when they become pregnant, female animals switch to preferring the scent of genetically similar males. This may allow them to seek out males that will help them protect and raise the baby. Claus Wedekind, PhD, who performed the original T-shirt-sniffing studies, has suggested that birth control pills somehow mimic this process.

The question, of course, is what happens when a woman taking birth control pills marries a man to whom she's attracted -- and then stops taking the pill.

Uh oh. That last sentence sounds a little foreboding. I guess we'll have to see where this novel issue takes some couples. Let's hope people don't have to choose between physical attraction and emotional intimacy. Solution: Nose plugs?

Until Next Time!
TC