Month: January 2009

I keep running into fascinating articles that The Economist ran over the Christmas period and this one is no exception – it covers research that suggests that men’s deodorants do increase sexual attractiveness, but by increasing confidence and hence the behaviour of the wearer. The smell alone seems to have little impact on women.

Craig Roberts of the University of Liverpool and his colleagues—working with a team from Unilever’s research laboratory at nearby Port Sunlight—have been investigating the problem. They already knew that appropriate scents can improve the mood of those who wear them. What they discovered, though, as they will describe in a forthcoming edition of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, is that when a man changes his natural body odour it can alter his self-confidence to such an extent that it also changes how attractive women find him.

Half of Dr Roberts’s volunteers were given an aerosol spray containing a commercial formulation of fragrance and antimicrobial agents. The other half were given a spray identical in appearance but lacking active ingredients. The study was arranged so that the researchers did not know who had received the scent and who the dummy. Each participant obviously knew what he was spraying on himself, since he could smell it. But since no one was told the true purpose of the experiment, those who got the dummy did not realise they were being matched against people with a properly smelly aerosol.

Over the course of several days, Dr Roberts’s team conducted a battery of psychological tests on both groups of volunteers. They found that those who had been given the commercial fragrance showed an increase in self-confidence. Not that surprising, perhaps. What was surprising was that their self-confidence improved to such an extent that women who could watch them but not smell them noticed. The women in question were shown short, silent videos of the volunteers. They deemed the men wearing the deodorant more attractive. They were, however, unable to distinguish between the groups when shown only still photographs of the men, suggesting it was the men’s movement and bearing, rather than their physical appearance, that was making the difference.

The abstract of the actual study (I don’t have access to the full-text unfortunately) also reports that non-verbal attractiveness (presumably, sexiness of ‘body language’) was predicted by the men’s liking of the deodorant, independent of their facial attractiveness.

The researchers conclude by highlighting the remarkable influence of personal odour on self-perception, and how this can even influence how others perceive us, even when they can’t actually smell the scent.

The Economist article also discusses the link between natural scent, genetic and pheromones, and sexual allure. An intriguing article and an excellent study.

Link to Economist article ‘The scent of a man’.
Link to DOI entry for deodorant and sexual attractiveness study.

Petra Boyton has a fantastic piece on the experience of orgasm during birth – the focus of an upcoming documentary and a subject likely to cause discomfort in some.

Petra discusses the relationship between sexual stimulation and labour noting that sexual pleasure has been reported during childbirth in the medical literature.

This is from a 1987 review article on sexuality and childbirth:

Newton (1971 , 1973) argued that women’s three reproductive acts: coitus, parturition, and lactation are psychophysiologically interrelated and trigger caretaking behavior, a necessity for species survival. Features that are evident in both coitus (sexual arousal and orgasm) and in undisturbed childbirth include changes in respiration (hyperpnea and tachypnea), vocalization, strained facial expression, rhythmic uterine contractions, loosening of the cervical mucous plug, frequent supine position with thighs adducted, a tendency to become uninhibited, exceptional muscular strength, an altered state of consciousness with rapid return to alert awareness after orgasm or birth, and a profound feeling of joy or ecstasy following orgasm or delivery. In addition, clitoral engorgement usually associated with sexual arousal has been described in labor in a number of parturients, beginning at 8-9cm cervical dilation (clitoral engorgement has also been described on occasion during stressful situations, without sexual stimulation) (Rossi, 1973). Intense orgasmic sensations have also been described during the second stage of labor (Masters and Johnson, 1966; Sarlin, 1963).

However, there is also evidence that sexual stimulation during labour has been shown to help delivery and ease labour-related pain – such as research on the benefits of breast stimulation during birthing.

However, Petra’s write-up makes clear that systematic research is still lacking, so we’re still not sure about how many women experience orgasm during birth, or how effective all types of active sexual stimulation might be to assist birth.

However, this topic is contentious owing to the psychological discomfort it causes. Perhaps the clash between the stereotypes that birth is innocent and pure while sex is dirty and salacious mean that some people will just find the whole subject too much to handle.

There are many of these areas in medicine. For example, sexual relationships between people with learning disabilities.

The thought of two people with Down syndrome having sex causes great discomfort in many people, despite the fact that it is perfectly possible for some people with Down’s understand and consent to the situation.

If we assume that all people who are able to consent and have found a willing consenting partner should be able to freely participate in a sexual relationship, perhaps it would be useful to develop a test to help evaluate people with learning abilities to make sure they are both able to understand and consenting.

These sorts of tests are common for testing the capacity for other sorts of decisions – such as financial responsibility, or decisions to refuse medical care – but discomfort factor tends to mean that these areas are under-researched.

With reference to the upcoming documentary, the website for the film has quite a curious tone, and I have to say, is slightly sensational.

Buy the DVD or CD!

Share Orgasmic Birth with your friends and family this holiday season with our special 5 pack of DVD’s and CD soundtrack and SAVE. Subtitled in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.

I can’t say a 5 pack of the Orgasmic Birth (and soundtrack!) would the first thing that comes to mind when buying Christmas presents, but there you go.

Link to Dr Petra on ‘Is there such a thing as an ‚Äòorgasmic birth‚Äô?’