Women’s body odour during the ovulatory phase modulates testosterone and cortisol levels in men

A growing body of evidence suggests that men may perceive women’s bodily odour to be more attractive during the high-fertility ovulatory phase than during other phases in the menstrual cycle. In particular, women’s bodily odour may influence important aspects of male mating behaviour, but the precise nature of this phenomena remains to be elucidated. Twenty-six men and five women participated in the study. Each woman wore a cotton T-shirt during the night for 3 days during the ovulatory phase, after which the regions of the T-shirt that had been in contact with the woman’s chest, armpits, and back, were cut out of the garment. We evaluated the changes in testosterone and cortisol levels in the saliva of men who smelled these cloth pieces. The odour emitted from the backs of women in the ovulatory phase was found to increase testosterone secretion in men, whereas the odour emitted from the chests of women in the ovulatory phase reduced cortisol secretion in men. These results suggest that the odour of specific body parts of women modulate unconscious physiological reactions in men.