Smell, Sex Attraction, & Orgasm (article)

note: this piece summarizes wellknown info. From my perspective, the dominance of smell over the other senses suggests the dominance of the Po Soul (lung spirit) when it comes to sexual patterns. This is not darwinian survival of the fittest shen – it’s just the shen trying to complete their destiny. The Po want to bond with the earth, and that is what sex effectively is, two bodies sharing one earth. – michael

THE SCIENCE OF SEX: DOES THE NOSE KNOW?
By Brie Cadman
divinecaroline.com
January 2008

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22081/42913

Most women have had the mysterious experience of being turned on by a
partner¹s smell. A friend of mine once told me her ex-boyfriend¹s scent made
her feel ³safe and drawn to him,² and that his smell was so distinct and
attractive that even after a sweaty workout, she found him appealing. ³The
more exercise, the better.²

Though personality and looks definitely play a part in initial attraction,
smell may play a larger role than we suspect. That inexplicable ³chemistry²
you feel with someone who may not fit your normal dating profile? It could
be a subconscious scent drawing you to him or her.

Studies have found that how a person smells gives us clues to their genetic
make-up, and thus, their potential to be a compatible mate. On a
subconscious level, decoding a scent gives us a powerful tool to ensure our
kids will be healthy, and our orgasms will be plentiful.

The first study to indicate that chemical signals play a role in attraction
was conducted by Claud Wedekind over a decade ago. Forty-four men wore the
same T-shirt for three days. They refrained from deodorants and scented
soaps so they wouldn¹t interfere with their natural smell. Women then
sniffed the shirts and indicated which ones smelled the best to them. By
comparing the DNA of the women and men, the researchers found that women
didn¹t just choose their favorite scent randomly. They preferred the scent
of man whose major histocompatibility complex (MHC) — a series of genes
involved in our immune system — was most different from their own.

Researchers knew to look at the MHC because of its importance in animal¹s
sexual preferences. In mice, it has long been known that MHC not only helps
ward off infection, but it also plays a role in scent and mate selection.

From an evolutionary perspective, choosing a mate with a different immune
system makes survival sense. Kids of parents with different immune genes are
more likely to be disease-resistant and are therefore more likely to
survive. The women in this study also reported liking the scents that
reminded them of their current or previous boyfriends, showing that MHC
attraction is consistent. And because MHC profiles differ greatly from one
person to the next, there is no universally ³good² smell. One woman¹s Romeo
was another woman¹s raunchy.

Further studies have built upon this initial finding of mate preference. It
turns out that women are most attracted to men that have an MHC profile
similar to their fathers. That is, they don¹t want a mate with an identical
genetic make-up, but they also don¹t want one that has no overlapping genes
at all. By doing this, women can avoid in-breeding (which can result in
genetic defects) and complete out-breeding (which can dilute robust genes).

A genetically complimentary mate means more than just initial attraction,
however. It also leads to more female orgasms, better chances of conception,
and an improved sex life. And the attraction based on scent isn¹t just
reserved for heterosexual couples. Gay men and lesbians respond as would be
expected to body odors, but to the same sex.

An interesting exception to the MHC attraction is for women taking the pill.
Wedekind found that pill-takers responded in almost the exact opposite
manner than would be expected. Because the pill tricks your body into
thinking it is pregnant, it chemically alters your sense of attraction.
Instead of finding the scent of genetically dissimilar men attractive, women
on the pill found the scent of men with MHC¹s similar to their own to be
attractive.

This may be because when a woman is pregnant, she isn¹t looking for a new
mate, and may benefit from being around kin, or those with a similar genetic
make-up. But, because scent can be such a powerful indicator of a mate that
is biologically compatible, what does this mean for women on the pill?
Research has shown that picking a mate whose MHC is too similar to your own
can result in higher rates of miscarriage and relationship difficulties like
infidelity. Are contraceptive takers sabotaging their innate ability to pick
a proper mate?

Though certainly the scent of a man can be a powerful indicator of genetic
compatibility, it certainly doesn¹t dictate everything. If a woman falls in
love with a man, and then begins the pill, she¹s not likely to lose
interest; love may be more powerful than the initial scent connection. And
there are certainly other factors at play than just scent. Like most
biological responses, mate preference and sexual attraction is much more
complex than just how we smell. Because our scent communication acts at a
subtle level, we have to get close enough even to detect it; that is, there
needs to be a reasonable amount of physical or intellectual attraction in
the first place. Although there is a new internet dating-site based on the
MHC smell basis, scientificmatch.com, they still require users to fill out
the normal things that most people base their compatibility on: age,
hobbies, interests, income, etc.

Our noses may help us find the mate most suited to us, but it¹s ultimately
up to our minds to decide whether or not we like what we¹ve sniffed out.