There are some women who literally lead men by their nose

28 women and 57 men participated in the research. Women had to follow strict rules to reduce the effects of scents, for example, they could not take birth control pills, abandon hot foods, alcohol and only use neutral toiletries.

Hormone levels also affect female attractiveness

In the most productive days of their cycles, women smelled the scent of cotton for the night, and at the same time determined their hormone levels. The men who participated in the experiment later determined on the scale from zero to hundred how attractive the fragrance was to them.

Scientists have concluded that the participants were quite unanimous about the smell of women: the higher the estrogen level of a woman and the lower the level of progesterone, the more attractive it was.

From an evolutionary biology point of view, this is understandable by Daria Knoch, a professor at the University of Bern: this level of hormones in the most productive days of the female cycle suggests that there is a great chance of conceiving, and according to evolutionary theory men are looking for partners with whom race preservation can be most successful.

Other reasons were excluded by the researchers

Other causes of individual scent differences were largely excluded by researchers. For example, the cortisol stress hormone in this study apparently had no effect on the attractiveness of a woman's natural smell.

Scientists have also examined the role of the immune system of the participants in blood samples. Some studies assume that partner choice is based on the choice of the most diverse immune-type woman or man, so that the offspring has the best defense system against the pathogens, said Janek Lobmaier, co-author of the study. However, the similarity between the immune system of the male and female participants did not affect the evaluation of the scents during the research.

The effect of the contraceptive pill on the attractiveness of the fragrances has not been studied, but Koch argues that hormonal contraception can alter natural odors.

It has not been studied the effect of male hormones on the smell of men and its effect on women. However, past research has shown that men have certain external characteristics of high testosterone levels that are particularly attractive to women, but that the overly dominant and masculine characteristics tend to radiate aggressiveness so they can act repulsively.

(Source: marmalade.co.uk; hirado.com | Image: pixabay.com)