[Ugnet] New Scientist Editor's Choice: Scent of a Woman -- Reverse Viagra for Women?

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 09:53:01 -0800


EDITOR'S CHOICE
John Pickrell
John Pickrell,
Special Reports Editor
Scent of a woman

Older women sometimes complain of being "invisible" to men. But now a study with a natural pheromone suggests the sex appeal of post-menopausal women could be dramatically increased. Older women wearing perfume mixed with the pheromone reported a significant increase in petting, kissing and affection with their partners compared with women wearing a placebo scent. The pheromone was extracted from the armpit of a younger, fertile woman but its identity is a closely guarded secret until patents have been granted...MORE

 Sex pheromone spray boosts senior romance

  • 19:00 26 January 2005
  • Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
  • Andy Coghlan

A mystery chemical that young women deploy as a sex attractant pheromone seems to work for post-menopausal women too.

Joan Friebely of Harvard University, US, and Susan Rako, a private physician in Newton, Massachusetts, US, have studied 44 post-menopausal women. Half added Athena Pheromone 10:13, originally isolated from a woman's armpit sweat, to their perfume while half added a dummy compound. Neither the women nor the researchers knew who was in each group until the results were in.

In diaries kept by the women for six weeks, 41% of pheromone users reported more petting, kissing and affection with partners compared with 14% receiving the placebo. Overall, 68% of pheromone users reported increases in at least one of four "intimate socio-sexual behaviours" such as formal dates and sex, as against 41% on the placebo.

But the pheromone's discoverer, biologist Winnifred Cutler, is keeping its identity secret until patents have been granted to Cutler's Athena Institute for Women's Wellness Research in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, US. "It's still a mystery substance being applied to individuals at unknown concentrations," says George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Friebely and Rako say they have no financial interest in the product.

Journal reference: The Journal of Sex Research (vol 41, p 372)

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